India
Uttar Pradesh's director general of police OP Singh said the boy’s identity would not be disclosed. He would not be as he was just 18 years old.
Lucknow: An 18-year old boy from Uttar Pradesh’s Jalaun district made several threatening calls to “blow up” Miami airport as the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did not take a stand in helping him recover the wealth made by Bitcoins. He allegedly lost to a US-based fraud he encountered in a chat forum. The boy has been charged under the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act.
According to the Hindustan Times, the local police said that the boy had called the FBI at least 50 times in October. The Class 12 student allegedly made the threat calls after not getting help from the American investigative agency over a Bitcoin (a popular crypto-currency) deal in which a man in the US duped him, police officials said.
Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) OP Singh said the boy’s identity would not be disclosed. He would not be arrested as he was just 18 years old.
According to the DGP, an investigation revealed that the boy, known to be “a bright student”, made at least 50 calls to FBI authorities between October 2 and 31 after accessing their numbers from the Internet. He reportedly used a fake identity and a fake e-mail ID to make the calls.
However, multiple charges have been levelled against him under sections of the Indian Penal Code (impersonation/issuing threats), and the IT Act (for making calls over the Internet to the FBI/Miami airport authorities) and an FIR has been lodged, DGP said.
He also made five calls to Miami airport authorities, threatening to attack the airport by barging into it equipped with an AK-47 assault rifle, grenades and a suicide belt, the DGP said.
After the FBI approached India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) for help in tracking down the caller, the officials got in touch with the Uttar Pradesh police, whose anti-terrorism squad finally managed to track the caller.
During the interrogation, the boy reportedly told the investigators that he had taken $ 1,000 from his father, who runs an NGO, to invest in Bitcoins and earned large profits in five months.
But a “fraudster” he met over an online chat forum duped him of all his money after assuring him that he could make bigger profits, the DGP said.
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