New Delhi: Delhi Police sources on Wednesday said all the threatening emails to at least 100 schools in the national capital and neighbouring areas have been sent from the same mail ID. The investigation agencies suspect that the email originated from a server located in Russia.
"The investigation team is busy tracking the IP addresses of the sent mail. Intensive searches are going on in schools. A bomb threat was received by the Delhi Public School, Dwarka through an email. A bomb disposal squad is present at the school. No suspicious items have been found so far," sources said.
They added that the mail was sent on Tuesday. "There is no mention of date line in the mail and there is mention of BCC, which means that one mail has been sent to multiple places," sources added.
According to top police officials, the number of bomb threats could be even higher and this is being ascertained.
Police sources also said that on Tuesday, there was information about a bomb in Chacha Nehru Children's Hospital, Geeta Colony but no bomb was found in the hospital.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Dwarka, Ankit Singh, all the classes and the entire school are being searched and police have evacuated the entire school.
"Many police teams are verifying the email which was sent to the school administration of DPS. With the help of IP address and technical surveillance, the senders of the mail are being found out," police sources added.
East Delhi DCP Apoorva Gupta said, 'After receiving the information, our teams reached the spot and the students have been sent back to their homes. Checking is being done with the help of the bomb disposal squad." One of the other schools that received the email was the Delhi Convent School, located in Shalimar Garden, Ghaziabad.
GautamBuddha Nagar DM says bomb threat to school a hoax call
“As per an investigation carried out by the security agencies, it was found that the entire incident was a hoax. However, we had taken all required security arrangements to ensure the safety and security of students,” Manish Kumar Verma, District Magistrate of GautamBuddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh told ETV Bharat. The security agencies have thoroughly checked one school in GautamBuddha Nagar after which it was found that it was a hoax call, said Verma.
Delhi LG seeks report
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena visited a school in the national capital and took stock of the situation. Sources said that the Delhi LG has sought a report from the Delhi Police Commissioner in this regard.
Meanwhile, the Home Ministry, government officials and cyber security experts have termed the "bomb threat" in school as a hoax call where miscreants attempted to create a sense of insecurity among citizens.
Talking to ETV Bharat, Rajesh Pant, former National Cyber Security Coordinator said it was a hoax call where the miscreants tried to create a sense of insecurity. "On an earlier occasion also, such an incident happened which was later found to be a hoax call. In today's incident too, the security agencies found it as a hoax call," said Pant.
Referring to the number of schools that had received such threat messages, Pant said that the miscreants wanted to create a major fear psychosis, especially during the time of the General Election.
Asserting that miscreants keep doing this kind of activities Pant recalled that during 2012 people from the Northeast had faced some kind of insecurity in Bengaluru, which promoted a mass exodus from the southern state.
Making hoax calls is a punishable offence
Miscreants make this kind of mischief. This kind of incident keeps happening in planes and railways also. However, this is a punishable office. The police and other security agencies are now equipped with the latest technology to detect such hoax calls and emails. The culprit will be nabbed for sure, said Pant.
The punishment
The punishment for doing such mischief depends on the magnitude of the crime. However, all prank calls cannot be considered legally offensive. The more severe the offence, the more severe its consequences. There are levels of punishment under the different sections of the law depending on the severity of the crime, said senior lawyer in the Supreme Court Satya Prakash Singh. (With ANI inputs)
