Call claiming bomb was planted at West Bengal secretariat turns out to be a hoax

Kolkata: A phone call on Thursday claiming that a bomb had been planted inside the West Bengal secretariat ‘Nabanna’ that houses Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s office, turned out to be hoax. The call was received at the PBX of ‘Nabanna’ when the Chief Minister was present in her office on the 14th floor. [caption id=“attachment_2612494” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Police was immediately informed of about the phone call, Joint Commissioner Kolkata Police (Headquarters) Supratim Sarkar said. Kolkata Police, its bomb detection and disposal squad, dog squad, special branch, detective department along with Howrah Police and other security agencies immediately rushed to ‘Nabanna’ and conducted a thorough search on all the floors, Sarkar said. Senior police officers monitored the drill at the Secretariat which houses many important departments and offices of a number of ministers. Along with different floors, the roof of the building too was checked throughly by the bomb and dog squads, besides the parking and other places around the building. The call turned out to be a hoax as nothing was found in the hours-long search operation, Sarkar said. Security in and around the entire Secretariat has been beefed up following the incident, he added. PTI