For third day in a row, Delhi schools get hoax bomb threat emails
Similar threats were also received by two branches of Prudence School located in Ashok Vihar and Pirtampura, as well as Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Lodhi Estate, which promptly shut down the school for a day.
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A fire tender at St Thomas School in Dwarka that received a bomb threat through email on Wednesday. PTIFor the third consecutive day on Wednesday, seven schools in Delhi received bomb threat emails in the morning, prompting authorities to conduct search operations on the premises. All the threats turned out to be a hoax.
Delhi Fire Service (DFS) officials said the St Thomas School in Dwarka called them to notify about the threat at 5.26 am, followed by Vasant Valley in Vasant Kunj at 6.30 am, Richmond Global School in Paschim Vihar at 8.11 am, and Mother International in Hauz Khas at 8.12 am. One fire tender was sent to each school.
Similar threats were also received by two branches of Prudence School located in Ashok Vihar and Pirtampura, as well as Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Lodhi Estate, which promptly shut down the school for a day.
The day also saw the police briefly apprehending a 12-year-old boy for allegedly sending fake bomb threats to St Stephen’s College and St Thomas School on Tuesday.
The police said the boy, a student of a private school, was apprehended in South Delhi, from where he had sent the emails. He was picked up and later released after counseling. “When he sent the email, his parents were out of the city… During counseling, the boy revealed that he wanted the schools to be shut down and randomly tagged the email IDs of the college and the school,” a source in the police said.
Similar threat emails were received on Monday by three Delhi schools – the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) School in Rohini’s Sector 14, the Navy School in Chanakyapuri, and another CRPF School in Dwarka’s Sector 16.
Sources said the contents of the emails are the same, and the sender is also suspected to be one person. The email read, “Good Morning… Explosive devices are hidden inside backpacks and placed around the classrooms of the school. This is extremely serious. You will all pay for your sins. Roadkill and Benji are the persons responsible for this bloodbath. Release our names to the press/media.”
According to an officer, Wednesday’s email was suspected to have been sent through VPN (Virtual Private Network), and the sender used the Tuta Mail service provider based in Germany. The police said they would write to Tuta Mail seeking details of the user.
An officer said that legal action is being pursued, and the cyber units of the respective district police are conducting an inquiry into the bomb threats in their areas.
Since last May, several schools in the Capital have been receiving similar hoax threats. More than 200 schools received bomb threats on their official email IDs in May 2024. Soon after, similar emails were sent to several hospitals, colleges, and the Delhi Airport.
In May this year, Udyog Bhawan at the Central Secretariat had received a bomb threat via email, triggering extensive checking that ultimately resulted in the building being declared safe.
In June, a Delhi-bound Air India flight from Mumbai had received a bomb threat after an airline crew member discovered a paper that said, “Bomb in flight Air India 2948, Air India 171” written on it. However, checks by the DFS and the Central Industrial Security Force revealed the threat to be a hoax.
Hoax bomb threats, a timeline
2022
November: Indian School, Sadiq Nagar, gets threat
2023
April 12: Indian School, Sadiq Nagar, gets two threats
May: Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, gets similar email
September: Lal Bahadur Shastri School, R K Puram, gets threat email
2024
February 2: Private school in RK Puram gets threat
May 1: Nearly 200 schools in and around Delhi get threats via email
May 12: 8 hospitals get threats
May 14: Tihar Jail, 4 hospitals get threat
June: Toronto and Dubai-bound flights get threats
August 2: Summer Fields School, Greater Kailash 1, gets threat email
August 20: 50 hospitals, a mall get threat emails
October 19: 8 flights bound for IGI get threats
October 26: Uttam Nagar resident sends two threat emails to IGI Airport
November 29: Venkateshwar Global school gets threat email
December 9: Over 50 schools get threats
December 20: Over 30 schools get threats
2025
January 8: DPS Vasant Vihar, Amity School in Saket, Salwan Public School and 7 others get threats
April 10: Man held for making calls about bombs kept at Red fort and Jama Masjid
April 16: Dwarka court gets threat
May 9: Delhi District and Cricket Association gets email claiming to blow up Arun Jaitley stadium
June 27: IGI Airport receives bomb threat written on a paper that was left on a flight.
July 14: 3 schools, 2 CRPF schools in Prashant Vihar and Dwarka’s Sector 16, Navy Children School in Chanakyapuri, get threats
July 15: 3 educational institutes, including St Stephen’s College and Laxman Public School, get threats
July 16: 7 schools in Capital, including St Thomas, Vasant Valley, and Mother International get threats
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