Bomb hoax emails to Bengaluru schools sent using programme created by Tamil Nadu boy

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On April 8, 16 schools in Bengaluru received bomb threat emails between 11am and 2.30pm. The email read: “A very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, attention is not a joke, this is not a joke, a very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, immediately call the police and sappers, hundreds of lives may suffer including yours, do not delay, now everything is only in your hands!”And on May 13, at least 12 educational institutes in Bhopal received a similar threat email which read, “Your school has 2 very powerful bombs, immediately call the police and the sapper brigade, this is not a joke, I repeat this is not a joke, hundreds of lives hang in the balance of death, act quickly there is still time, or everything can end very deplorable, so you do not say that you were not warned!!! Now everything depends only on you.”

The Bengaluru police booked a case on cyberterrorism charges and the Bhopal police joined the investigations. The police officer from Bengaluru said the minor boy did not send the emails himself but shared the code on Telegram and other platforms with the email senders, who used it to mask their IP address.

Sachin Atulkar, additional commissioner of police of Bhopal, said the investigations were progressing simultaneously. “We have shared information with each other and efforts are being made to nab the culprits,” he said.

The investigating team suspects that the emails’ origin might be from another country. “We are eager to know the motive behind sending bomb threat emails to several schools and colleges of these two specific cities,” a police officer said.