‘High-power explosives planted, students deserve freedom’: 20 Delhi colleges get bomb threat emails
The authorities immediately carried out checks with the help of the Bomb Detection Team (BDT), the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), and other agencies.
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Last week, on at least four occasions within five days, more than 100 schools in Delhi received similar emails, which were sent using VPNs. The police traced the domains to the UK and some European countries. (Credit: Pixabay)Around 20 colleges, including Jesus and Mary College in Chanakyapuri and several other institutions of Delhi University, received bomb threat emails on Wednesday, according to Delhi Police officers. The threats were later declared a hoax after searches revealed nothing suspicious, they said.
“This is the first time this week that such email threats have been reported. The messages, suspected to have been sent through a VPN (Virtual Private Network), carried content like ‘high power explosives’ had been planted and ‘students deserve freedom’,” a police source said.
According to an officer, the local police received calls regarding bomb threat emails in the afternoon from Jesus and Mary College as well as from Aryabhatta College and Motilal Nehru College located in the South Campus area of Southwest Delhi.
The authorities immediately carried out checks with the help of the Bomb Detection Team (BDT), the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), and other agencies. No suspicious items were found during the searches, the official said.
Last week, on at least four occasions within five days, more than 100 schools in Delhi received similar emails, which were sent using VPNs. The police traced the domains to the UK and some European countries.
Last December, the police tracked down a student who had allegedly sent a bomb threat to his school in an attempt to avoid an examination. The student had used a regular email ID without a VPN, which made it easier for the police to trace him. He was counselled and later allowed to go, police said.
In July this year, an investigation revealed that a 12-year-old boy had allegedly sent fake threats to two educational institutions — Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College and St Thomas School in Dwarka. He was briefly detained and released after counselling.
During the counselling session, the student of a private school revealed that he wanted schools to be shut down and had added the email IDs of the institutions at random. In this case too, the boy had not used a VPN, an officer said.
Last May, more than 200 schools received bomb threats via email. Similar threats were sent to several hospitals, colleges, and the Indira Gandhi International Airport in the national capital. Several cases of such threats are yet to be solved.
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