Yesterday, news surfaced that a man had caused a bomb scare on a Rajdhani Express after tweeting a false report as he was ‘angry’ over his brother’s train getting delayed. Now, reports reveal that panic ensued onboard Kandesh Express over an airline tag that read ‘BOM’.
According to The Indian Express, 32-year-old Ganesh Shinde landed in trouble while travelling from Jalgaon to Mumbai when the airline tag on his luggage that read ‘BOM’ was mistaken for the word ‘bomb’.
It started when Mr. Shinde offered to show a fellow passenger, 24-year-old Ganesh Shankar, a “recipe to make a bomb”. A Railway Protection Police (RPF) official was quoted saying,
“Shankar grew skeptical but laughed it off. But when Shinde handed over his cellphone to Shankar and asked him to type out his mobile number… Shankar raised an alarm and called the ticket examiner and other passengers.”
The passengers saw his luggage tag plus a map drawn on it and beat him up thinking he was a terrorist. Subsequently, when the train stopped at Badroli station, Surat Government Railway Police detained him and thoroughly searched the compartments.
Their investigation revealed that he worked as a utility van driver at the airport and ‘BOM’ was short for Bombay. The official further added,
“When inquired about the map scribbled on his luggage, Shinde said that he had drawn it to explain the route of char dhaam yatra to a friend.”
He was released the next afternoon. But this isn’t the first time these two words have confused people. Earlier, this mistake was made when a man called Mumbai Airport about a job vacancy.