New Delhi: A 14-year-old student has been apprehended by the Delhi Police from Chittaranjan Park for allegedly sending a hoax email stating that a bomb had been planted at the Summer Fields School in Greater Kailash I. The email triggered an evacuation of the school premises Friday, followed by a search operation by a bomb detection team.
According to the Delhi Police, the student had sent the email with the hope that his school would declare a holiday, as he was aware of “recent hoax email incidents at schools in Delhi/NCR, which led to immediate school holidays”.
The police have recovered a mobile phone that was allegedly used to send the hoax mail.
The boy had reportedly also mentioned two other schools in the email to make the threat seem more genuine. The email was originally sent in the early hours of Friday, but was read by Summer Fields authorities only after the school opened.
“On 02.08.24, information was received at PS GK from a school, Kailash Colony, GK-1, New Delhi regarding an email message received on the night of 01/02.08.24 from an unknown ID, that a bomb had been planted in the school. The school premises were evacuated and thorough checking was done by the bomb detection team and dog squad but nothing suspicious was found,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South District, Ankit Chauhan said in a press release Saturday.
The press release added: “With consistent efforts utilising technical skills, location of the suspect was found in the CR [Chittaranjan] Park area. During investigation it was revealed that the hoax email was sent by a CCL [child in conflict with the law] who is a student of the same school. The team raided and the CCL was apprehended from CR Park.”
"PERPETRATOR OF HOAX EMAIL OF BOMB THREAT IN SCHOOL APPREHENDED”
A student of a private school in GK was identified & apprehended within hours for sending a hoax bomb threat email to get a day off
Mobile phone used in sending the email to school seized@DelhiPolice @CPDelhi
— DCP South Delhi (@DCPSouthDelhi) August 3, 2024
The Delhi Police have registered a case under sections 351 (3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which pertains to criminal intimidation by threatening to cause death or grievous hurt, or to cause the destruction of any property by fire, and 66(F) of the Information Technology Act, which pertains to cyber terrorism, at the Cyber Police Station (South) Friday.
In recent months, over a hundred schools, some hospitals and the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport have received hoax emails threatening an attack, requiring their evacuation and search operations conducted on the premises,
On 1 May, nearly a hundred schools in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) were evacuated following bomb threats sent via email starting as early as 4 am. The Delhi Police conducted a search of all premises and found nothing suspicious at the time, as reported by ThePrint earlier.
The emails contained threatening language with possible religious overtones, followed by details of the type of explosive devices allegedly placed in the premises of different schools.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) called these emails a hoax. Later that month, the IGI airport and over half a dozen government-run hospitals also received bomb threats via emails. The Delhi Police confirmed at the time that nothing suspicious was found.
In June, a 13-year-old was apprehended for sending an email to the Delhi airport “for fun” claiming that a bomb had been planted on board a Dubai-bound flight.
The boy in this instance was traced to Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand and handed over to his parents.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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