By IANS, Thiruvananthapuram : All three international airports in Kerala were Tuesday put on high alert after an anonymous caller claimed that a bomb on a Dubai-Kerala flight was set to go off. However, it turned out to be a hoax and police said it could be connected to a fake currency racket.
The police are probing to see if the hoax call and the seizure of fake Indian currency notes on Saturday night at Kozhikode have anything in common.
Senior police official Arun Kumar Sinha said the call had been made to a police station in Mangalore and the Central Industrial Security Force, which is in charge of security at the three airports, was informed.
Kerala has three international airports – in Kochi, Kozhikode and state capital Thiruvananthapuram – and over a dozen flights from the Middle East were scheduled Tuesday. Security officials were on their toes throughout the day at the three airports.
Reports indicate the caller could be linked to a mafia connected with the fake currency seizure. A team of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials had on a tip off seized the fake currency worth Rs.20 million from a passenger who arrived from Dubai at Kozhikode airport.
DRI officials suspect the fake notes were printed in Dubai.
Earlier, Sinha had said that security at the airport was beefed up and people were being screened and vehicles also being checked. All the incoming flights from the Middle East were also being checked.