Amid enhanced security measures and immigration restrictions placed by the Trump administration, a Baroda-based businessman has been taken into custody at an airport in the State of North Dakota.
Law enforcement officials said he was booked for “terrorising”, and held at the Grand Forks County Correctional Centre.
Paraman Radhakrishnan was on a week-long business trip to the U.S., and preparing to return home when he checked in for a flight from Grand Forks to Minneapolis, Minnesota, early on Saturday.
Mr. Radhakrishnan then allegedly entered into an altercation with airlines staff, and was accused of threatening that there was a “bomb in his bag”, local newspapers reported. “Police say the leading theory behind what may have caused the suspect to make these threats is that he became disgruntled with airport staff, but they say regardless of the reason, any threat of this nature at an airport is taken seriously,” Grand Forks police spokesperson Jay Middleton said.
I have asked for a report from Indian Ambassador in U.S. @IndianEmbassyUS. https://t.co/9Xv09int4S
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) January 30, 2017
Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought a report from India's Ambassador to the US after an Indian man was arrested by authorities from an airport in North Dakota over a bomb threat.
Responding to a tweet by Mr Radhakrishnan wife, Ms Swaraj tweeted today:
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel and several friends of the businessman also sought Ms Swaraj's intervention for Mr Radhakrishnan release, claiming that he was falsely implicated in the case.
Mr Radhakrishnan was on a week-long business trip to the US and was returning home when he checked in for a flight from Grand Forks in North Dakota to Minneapolis, Minnesota early on Saturday, the Press Trust of India reported.
According to local media reports, Grand Forks police officers arrived at the airport around 5 am local time on Saturday after a traveller told a ticket agent there was a bomb in his bag.
Operations were suspended while the Grand Forks Regional Bomb Squad "evaluated the validity of the threat", the police said in a news release. However, officers did not find a bomb or threatening devices and the airport resumed normal operations.
