Days after Delhi Public School RK Puram received a hoax bomb threat on its email, claiming two devices were planted on the premises, a police probe revealed that the suspect used the Tor browser to access the Dark Web through which they used a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to send the email. While police have not been able to trace the sender, senior officers suspect they are students of the same school. Said an officer, “Through Tor, a dark web browser, (the sender) used a VPN of a foreign country, which we are trying to trace. we have written to the internet service providers to get their web connection details and eventually trace back the IP address.” The officer added that the suspect used an Outlook ID to send the e-mail, and tracing their digital footprints “will be an arduous task” because they might have used several VPN layers. “In Tor, there is an entry and exit VPN. The entry VPN is of the origin country and one can change the exit VPN to that of another country. To trace the suspects, we will have to break through at least three VPNs of varying countries,” said another officer. The school received the threat e-mail on Friday at 9 am. DCP (Southwest) Rohit Meena had said the school and hostel were thoroughly searched and nothing suspicious was found. Said an officer, “We prima facie suspect the accused to be students wanting to cause mischief.” Last year, several schools in the Capital had received hoax bomb calls. In most cases, the suspects were minor students of the same school, who were playing a prank or just “having fun”. In these cases, a kalandra or a notice is usually issued to a person against whom there is information that he/she is likely to commit breach of peace or disturb public tranquility. However, a case can also be lodged under IPC Section 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) and other sections of the IT Act. Police also write to their foreign counterpart if their VPN is used to send the email, through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) process, but information is often refused or it takes months to be shared. Previous incidents -May 16, 2023: Amrita Vidyalayam, Pushp Vihar, received a hoax bomb message. Police apprehended a Class 12 student; he said he sent it as a prank as he wanted the school to declare a holiday. -April 26 & May 11, 2023: Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, got two hoax bomb emails. Police had said students allegedly sent them. In the first case, a teenager was apprehended; he told investigators he did it “for fun” as “he wanted holidays”. In the second, the sender was traced but he denied sending the email. -April 12, 2023: The Indian School in Sadiq Nagar received a bomb hoax email, which was traced to a Russian domain. Police wrote to their foreign counterpart seeking details, but are yet to receive a response. The school received a similar email in November 2022, which was traced to a German online domain; a response from the country is yet to be received. Police suspected students to be involved in both cases.
