The police questioned a group of young Muslim men from Kerala for hours after a commuter complained that they were talking about “bombs” in a local train in Mumbai. The issue, however, turned out that the commuter heard “bomb” when the group actually said “Bombay.”
The Indian Express reports that the six men from Kerala had to go through several rounds of interrogation by the police. They were first questioned by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and later handed over to the Vashi GRP for further interrogation. Sachin Bhalode, senior divisional security commissioner (central railways) told the newspaper that even the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad was apprised of the situation. They were kept in the custody till the night.
According to a report in The Times of India, the police have not disclosed their names.
The group told the police that they were the students of a madrasa in Kerala. They had set out to a madrasa in Ratnagiri to learn Urdu. They also said that they had boarded the local train from CST to Panvel for sightseeing.
The police cross-verified the information they provided with the madrasas in Kerala and Ratnagiri and found their versions to be true, says the report.
It turned out that the commuter, who complained that he had one of the men saying “bomb,” had misunderstood them. They men were speaking in Malayalam, which he didn’t understand. One of the six men had said Bombay in a Malayalam accent which he heard as “Bomb-ay”. This caused all the trouble for the boys.