Man booked for hoax bomb call against ex-PM Manmohan acquitted

NEW DELHI: Over 17 years after registration of an FIR against him, a court here has acquitted a man accused of making a hoax call to police claiming a bomb threat to the then prime minister Manmohan Singh on the Independence Day in 2005.

Metropolitan magistrate Vipul Sandwar was hearing the case against the man who was charged with the offences under sections 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) and 182 (false information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person) of the Indian Penal Code.

“...The prosecution has not been able to establish beyond reasonable doubt that accused Mahesh has committed offences under sections 182 and 507 of the IPC and is found not guilty in the present case…,” the magistrate said in the judgement passed last week.

He said the prime witness in the case, the PCO/STD booth owner Lalit Ahmed, was “unsettled” during his cross-examination and stated that he was not present in his PCO when the call was made.

“Since prosecution witness 2 (Ahmed) was not present at the time when the call was made, anything deposed by him would be in the nature of hearsay and hence, not admissible.

“Accordingly, the prosecution has failed to prove the offence punishable under section 182 of the IPC,” the magistrate said.

The court said the evidence brought on record was insufficient to link the accused to the commission of the crime and the prosecution had failed to establish the identity of the accused as the person who had made the false call to the police.

“The prosecution has failed to establish that accused Mahesh was the person making the call from the PCO shop of PW2 and therefore, in the absence of identification of accused, the offence punishable under section 507 of the IPC is not proved,” it added.