Schools bomb threat: Delhi police approaches Moscow to provide suspect’s details

New Delhi: A day after over 250 schools in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) received bomb threat emails that triggered scare of an unprecedented scale, the Delhi Police have approached the National Central Bureau (NCB) in Moscow, Russia to provide them with details of the person who created the email account with the country domain (.ru) to send the hoax bomb threats.

According to the police, the suspect created an email ID ‘[email protected]’ after registering with a private email service provider that offered other facilities and used a virtual private network (VPN) to shroud their identity. It was the only email address used, to send the hoax bomb email to all the schools early Wednesday morning.

The 281-word long email said there “are many explosive devices in the school”.

Mail.ru is the email service provided by the Russian company VK, similar to how Gmail or Outlook are email services provided by Google and Microsoft, respectively. VPNs allow users to mask their IP addresses online.

“We have collected details of the emails from all the schools and examined them. All emails were sent by the same origin one by one to the schools. No other email IDs were used. All information has been sent to NCB Russia through Interpol. We have asked for details of the registrant such as name, address contact details, alternate email IDs, and complete ID Logs. We are awaiting their reply,” said a senior police officer associated with the case.

More than 250 schools in Delhi and NCR, received bomb threat emails, on Wednesday morning following which a large-scale panic was triggered among the school authorities, students and their parents, as thousands of them thronged the schools soon after they learnt about the bomb threats through various media platforms.

Also Read: Schools reopen in Delhi-NCR amid tight security day after bomb threat mails

The unscheduled arrival of parents at schools in their vehicles, cabs and autos caused traffic snarls on roads around. Bomb detection team, bomb disposal squad, sniffer dogs and officials of the fire brigade were rushed to the schools in Delhi and NCR. Several schools were closed as a precaution and students were sent home immediately.

A case of criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation was registered by the Delhi Police special cell, the anti-terror unit of the city police, under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology (IT) Act.

Multiple teams of the special cell’s counterintelligence unit (CIU) and Intelligence Fusion Strategic Operations (IFSO) have been roped in to carry out the probe.

Initial probe revealed that the country domain (.ru) of the email ID used to send hoax bomb threats was also used for a similar email sent to a private school in the city last year and the suspect likely used a VPN to shroud their identity, police officers said, and added that they suspect “a deeper conspiracy” behind the mass hoax threat emails.

The ministry of home affairs has assured that there is no need to panic as the bomb threat appears to be a hoax call, with police and security agencies taking necessary measures.

Meanwhile, lieutenant governor LG Saxena has directed the Delhi police chief to provide a comprehensive report and ensure thorough searches to identify perpetrators and prevent security lapses.

Between November 2022 and May 2023, three schools in Delhi received at least five hoax threat emails. Two schools received two such emails each, while the third school received one email.