A retired army personnel named Swamy Sundar Murthy was arrested by the Bengaluru Police for allegedly making a hoax call to the police control room claiming that 19 terrorists were present in Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram and that terror attacks would be carried out in major cities in the southern and western parts of the country, reports Hindustan Times.

According to the report, a senior police officer said it was almost certain in light of the facts that the call was a hoax. “However, we could not take any chances and, hence, had to share the information with other states as a precaution,” the officer was quoted in the report as saying.

On Friday (26 April), Karnataka Director General and Inspector General of Police Neelamani Raju had sent a letter to the DGPs of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa and Maharashtra warning them about the information.

In the letter, Raju said: “One person...claiming to be a lorry driver by name Swamy Sundar Murthy who is claiming to be on his way to Hosur (Tamil Nadu) called up control room, Bengaluru city police at 17.35 hours today... He claims to have information to the effect that major cities in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Pondicherry, Goa and Maharashtra will be hit by terror attacks,” as reported by Hindustan Times.