Delhi Public School (DPS) in RK Puram faced a security scare on Friday when it received a bomb threat via email around 9 am. The email claimed the presence of two bombs on the school premises. In response, the school administration promptly informed the police, leading to the immediate evacuation of the school and the initiation of a thorough search operation. Authorities are currently tracking the IP address of the email to identify the sender.
Simultaneously, the Mumbai Traffic Police Control Room received a similar bomb threat, stating that explosives had been planted at six different locations across the city. Mumbai police, along with other agencies, are actively involved in tracing the sender of the threatening message.
This incident is not an isolated one, as there has been a series of hoax bomb threats in various educational institutions and public places in recent months. In September last year, Lal Bahadur Shastri School in RK Puram faced a similar situation when it received a bomb threat via email, which later turned out to be a hoax.
In May, Delhi Public School (DPS) in Mathura Road received a similar threat through a hoax email about a bomb on the premises. Similarly, The Indian School in Sadiq Nagar encountered two bomb threats, with the last one occurring on April 12, 2023, delivered via email. The first threat was received over the phone in November 2022. Investigations revealed both instances to be hoaxes.
This alarming trend of bomb threats extends beyond educational institutions. In a recent case, a Noida-based BPO employee was arrested for making a hoax bomb call in an attempt to delay his flight from Darbhanga in Bihar to Delhi due to running late. The call, made to SpiceJet’s Gurugram-based call center, falsely claimed that two men were discussing a bomb on SpiceJet flight SG-8496 flying from Darbhanga to Delhi on January 24. The incident resulted in a high-alert situation at Delhi airport, but a thorough search of the aircraft confirmed it to be a false alarm. The accused was charged under IPC sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication).
As these incidents raise concerns about the frequency of hoax bomb threats, authorities are emphasizing the need for vigilance, stringent security measures, and prompt action to trace and apprehend those responsible for such threats.