Second FIR in three weeks over hoax bomb threat email to passport office in Baner

As a precautionary measure, police conducted a thorough search of the premises after receiving the email, but found nothing suspicious.

Police said a similar hoax threat had been received around three weeks earlier, on February 26, via an Outlook email ID. In that case, too, Pote had lodged an FIR at the Baner police station against an unidentified sender.

As per the FIR, the earlier email stated that “19 RDX IEDs made using c-4 RDX” had been planted at key locations in the passport office and would explode during lunch time.

Police said the February 26 email contained irrelevant references to Tamil Nadu policemen and a political party from the state. It also mentioned “Azad Kashmir Pak ISI cells”, “Sri Lankan Easter suicide operation” and “Tamil Nadu Retrieval Troops-Khalistan Tigers”, along with names of certain persons who did not work at the passport office in Pune.

Investigators said the threats sent on February 26 and March 17 carried similar content, though the emails were sent from slightly different addresses.

Police added that similar hoax threat emails have recently been received by passport offices in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, and Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Pune police are coordinating with their counterparts in these states as part of the investigation.