Depressed man conjures ‘fake’ terror attack, gets arrested for giving false info to cops

Police arrested a 32-year-old man who gave false information about terrorists planning to carry out strikes in major cities, including Mumbai and Pune, during the upcoming Ganesh festival.

The accused, identified as Prasad Pradip Rasal, was arrested on Wednesday.

The Pune-resident had come to Mumbai for some work last week. During his visit, approached the Police Commissioner office and Vile Parle Police with information about a possible terror attack at Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, and Kolhapur.

Rasal told cops that he had heard a discussion of three terror suspects, talking in Hindi and Urdu, about their plan to carry out terror strikes.

Since the information was sensitive, teams were formed to trace the suspects and an alert was issued across the city. However, during the two days of probe, police did not find any truth in Rasal’s claims and also found discrepancies in his statements.

Officials then started interrogating Rasal for hours, following which he admitted that he provided false information to police to spread fear among people.

During his interrogation, he told the police that he was under depression after incurring financial losses in business and planned to spread fake information about terror attacks.

According to an official, Rasal used to watch crime-related television series like CID and movies based on terror incidents, through which he got an idea of spreading false information about terror activities.

He was arrested under sections 505 (2) (statements conducing public mischief), 177 (furnishing false information) and 182 (false information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person) of the IPC.

The accused was produced before the court, which remanded him in police custody till July 26.