New Delhi: This week saw at least 22 instances of hoax bomb threats being made to Indian airlines, impacting seven national and international flights. All of these threats were issued via multiple accounts on social media platform X.
Sources in the Delhi Police said that so far, no pattern has emerged in the hoax posts, but all of them were written in English. At least three different X handles that issued these threats have been identified, the sources further said. Asked if any of the IP addresses used have been traced, a senior Delhi Police officer said, “Central agencies are also working on this. One address has been traced to be routed from Germany and London. Further investigation is on.”
While several schools and hospitals have received hoax bomb threats this year, the latest spate of threats have been issued in connection with national and international flights flying to and from Delhi and Mumbai, Frankfurt-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru, Mumbai-Muscat and Mumbai-New York flights. Airlines that received these threats include Vistara, Air India and IndiGo.
The Mumbai Police have registered five cases so far, and the Delhi Police have lodged eight. No arrests have been made yet, but a minor and a 32-year-old shop owner from Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh have been detained.
The 17-year-old had allegedly posted that two international flights had Royal Demolition Explosives (RDX) on board. He was presented before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and has been sent to four-days’ custody.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Thursday said: “Whatever little we have known, it (the threats) is coming from minors or some pranksters. For very little, petty things, they are trying to issue threats on social media or through phone calls. So these are isolated incidents, there is no kind of conspiracy we can comment on.”
‘Revenge over monetary dispute’
The 17-year-old and the 32-year-old man have been detained in connection with an FIR lodged by the Mumbai Police over threats issued to two Indigo and three Air India flights.
“Prima facie it appears that the minor had created the X handle in the 32-year-old man’s name and posted it to take revenge on him over a monetary dispute. Investigation is still on this case as well as the remaining four cases,” a senior Mumbai Police officer told ThePrint.
Police sources said the minor had called up the Mumbai airport on their official number and claimed that the person who put out the X post about bombs on these flights is an acquaintance from Rajnandgaon.
In June this year, another minor was detained by the Delhi Police for allegedly sending out a hoax bomb threat for a Toronto-bound flight. In May, another minor was questioned by the Delhi Police for sending a bomb threat email to the police headquarters, marking the police commissioner about the presence of a bomb near a school in Nangloi area.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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