One person has been arrested on charges of making the hoax call.

The call was received around 8.45 am at the Chandigarh Police Control Room at its telephone number 100. The caller said: “Aaj shehar mein 11 bajkar 5 minute par bomb fatega. Bacha sakte ho to bacha lo (Bombs will explode at 11.05 am today. Save the city if you can).”

Since no specific place was mentioned in the call made from a Mohali telephone number, the Chandigarh Police alerted its Mohali counterparts. The police launched a massive combing operation in their respective jurisdictions with the help of bomb disposal squads. Heavily crowded public places and other vulnerable points were evacuated, but nothing suspicious was found.

“The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium in Mohali, which is hosting the second cricket Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy-2008 between India and Australia, was thoroughly combed,” said Mohali Superintendent of Police (City) Varinder Paul Singh.

After the “explosion” time 11.05 am elapsed, the police tracked down the landline telephone number from where the call was made.

“During investigations that lasted for almost an hour, the number was traced to a unit in Industrial Area, Phase III, Mohali,” said Singh.

A worker at the unit, Manki Kumar, a resident of Bhagwanpur village in Siwan district of Bihar, was arrested after his voice matched with that in the call recorded at the Police Control Room.

The Mohali police handed over the man, in his early 30s, to the Chandigarh Police, which booked him under Sections 506 and 507 of the IPC.

“During preliminary interrogation, the caller confessed to making the call and said it was just a mischief to get a leave from the factory as he presumed the hoax call would make the police evacuate all industrial units as well,” said a senior investigating officer, adding that further interrogation was in progress to ascertain any other motive behind making the call and to find out the previous track record of the caller.