City police said Friday that two hoax bomb calls against the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta in April came from a detainee in Cipinang penitentiary, East Jakarta.

Anti-terror police chief Sr. Comr. Rudi Suparyadi said Hargobind P. Tahilramani, who was detained there in relation to a fraud case, made the bomb calls for "fun".

"I don't understand why he did such a thing," Rudi said.

Rudi said Hargobind was also wanted by the Los Angeles Police Department for a similar case. In March last year, when Hargobind was living in America, he allegedly made five hoax bomb calls against the Pentagon, the U.S. military defense building.

Hargobind, an Indonesian citizen, first called the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta on April 21 at 11:42 p.m., saying that there was a bomb in the building, which was set to explode in the next 72 hours.

He called the embassy again in the following night at 9:56 p.m., to "remind" staff that the building would blow up in the next 48 hours.

Yunarto Gunawan, an employee at the embassy, reported the call to the city police on April 23. Six days later the police found the location of the hoax bomb caller in Cipinang penitentiary by tracing the phone number.

The police sent an anti-terror group to the prison where, upon their arrival, a police officer repeatedly called the number to find Hargobind's actual position -- room number 203 in block OT.

Hargobind admitted that he had made the terror calls, and the police confiscated his black mobile phone and SIM card.

Rudi said police would press charges against Hargobind but he was not taken to police headquarters as he was still waiting to be tried for the fraud case.

Details of his case were not available. (ind)

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