‘Akasa Air aircraft will go down': Class 12 student arrested for threatening tweet

A class 12 student from Gujarat was arrested by Mumbai Police for allegedly posting a tweet in which he claimed that an aircraft of airline Akasa Air "will go down".

The airline took no time to lodge a complaint at the Airport Police Station after it found out that it was a threatening tweet. Later, an FIR was registered against unidentified persons under Indian Penal Code Sections 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 506(2) (criminal intimidation).

The 18-year-old student had tweeted "AkasaAir Boeing 737 Max will go down.”

During the investigation, the city police traced the IP address of the tweet to Surat in Gujarat, where a team was dispatched and the student was arrested on March 27, PTI quoted officials as saying.

During interrogation, the accused told the police that he did this because he was interested in knowing more about aircraft and had not realised the repercussions of such a post on social media, the official said.

The student further told the cops that his intention was not to cause any kind of disturbance.

After one-day custody, the accused was released on a bail of Rs 5,000 as his exams were going on, the official said.

Recently, two flights got hoax bomb threat calls, further leading to the arrest of one passenger at Rajiv Gandhi International airport in Hyderabad.

While the IndiGo flight 6E 6191 from Delhi to Deogarh was diverted to Lucknow after a bomb threat today, a Chennai-Hyderabad flight received a hoax bomb threat call which was done by a passenger. He did it because he was delayed to catch the flight. 

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