New Delhi:

Weeks after a string of bomb hoaxes triggered panic at dozens of schools in Delhi, the city police have uncovered a meticulous plan by a minor to skip exams at his school. They have taken into custody the Class 12 student after finding out his role behind the bomb threats that put the entire city administration on alert on several days.

He had sent bomb threat emails at least six times, each time marking different schools except his own. To avoid suspicion, he always tagged multiple schools on the mail, said officials, adding that he once sent a mail to 23 schools.

Officials said the minor did not want to appear for exam at school and devised a plan to set the stage for bomb threats, which he assumed would disrupt the exams and get those cancelled.

Read: “Give $30,000 Or…”: Bomb Hoax At Over 40 Delhi Schools, Students Sent Home

Dozens of such bomb hoaxes had kept authorities on alert in the past few weeks, with former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal saying Delhi never had such a bad state of law and order.

Students were sent back while the bomb squad and sniffer dogs took over campuses. They would end up with nothing suspicious at the end of the day, but a day would get wasted giving a surprise holiday to the students.

In one such incident last month, over 40 schools – including DPS RK Puram and GD Goenka School in Paschim Vihar – received a bomb threat via email. The email said small bombs were planted inside the school buildings and demanded $30,000 to defuse those.

The bomb threats also triggered a political row with Chief Minister Atishi slamming the BJP-ruled central government over the law and order situation. The police in the national capital are under the Union Home Ministry and not the Delhi government.

Read: ‘Wanted Attention’: Unemployed Delhi Man Arrested For Threats To Airlines

Facing such frequent fake threats, the city police had also started training teachers and school staff in dealing with such crises. A seminar was organised by the police and the Education department on handling such situations.

Besides schools, several airlines also received a spate of bomb hoaxes during this period, sparking panic in the aviation world and among law enforcement officials. It led to emergency landings, disrupting flight timings and resulting in excessive fuel usage.

A 25-year-old unemployed man was detained by Delhi Police last year for one such bomb hoax, while in another case, a 17-year-old dropout was taken into custody in Mumbai for trying to frame a friend by sending the threat mail.

Two Delhi schools received a bomb threat on Monday morning. DPS RK Puram and GD Goenka School in Paschim Vihar received a threat, in the early hours. Students have been sent back home and the Police have been informed.

It is a peak hour in schools, with school buses arriving, parents dropping their children off at school, and staff preparing for the morning assembly. Reportedly, the threat was received via email.

The Delhi Fire Department was informed around 7 am.

Earlier, in October, on a Sunday morning, an explosion occurred outside a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) school in Rohini’s Prashant Vihar. The explosion damaged the school wall and nearby shops and vehicles.

Following this, the very next day, on October 21, schools received an email threatening a bomb blast at all CRPF schools by Tuesday, 11 am. An investigation began immediately and the threat was found to be a hoax.

Mumbai:

A bomb threat was received on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s customer care number yesterday, during which the caller claimed to be the “CEO of Lashkar-e-Taiba”, sources said.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group had carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, one of the deadliest terror attacks in India.

The call came on the helpline number around 11 am on Saturday and he threatened to blow up the central bank with a bomb, they said. He said he was the “CEO” of the banned group and sang a song over the phone before issuing the threat, sources said.

Mumbai Police has filed a case and is trying to hunt down the caller.

The bomb threat comes amid a series of hoax calls to airlines that grounded hundreds of flights over the past two months, leading to a concern for aviators and security agencies.

An IndiGo flight from Nagpur to Kolkata made an emergency landing in Raipur on Thursday after a bomb threat that turned out to be fake – this was the latest such incident.

The central government has taken up the issue with great concern and warned social media platforms to act against the spread of such misinformation or lose exemptions that they enjoy in India.

The Information Technology Ministry had said in an advisory that such bomb hoaxes not only affect the citizens but also destabilise the country’s economic security.

One of the bomb hoaxes last month turned out to be a plot by a school dropout in Chhattisgarh to frame his friend.

New Delhi:

Tirupati’s ISKCON temple received a bomb threat on Sunday. Temple authorities registered a complaint with the police about receiving a threatening email, claiming ISIS terrorists would blow up the temple.

Tirupati police initiated immediate action and conducted searches. The local police got bomb squads and dog units to check for any explosives. However, no explosives or any other objectionable items were recovered from the temple premises.

Circle Inspector Srinivasulu confirmed the news and assured that appropriate and necessary efforts were underway to identify those responsible for the threats. The police is suspecting it to be yet another hoax mail.

This is the fourth hoax mail the temple town of Tirupati received in the last three days.

Earlier on Saturday, two hotels also received bomb threats, which were later confirmed as hoax threats. Before that, three other hotels in the town received bomb threats, heightening the anxiety among residents and devotees.

The threat reportedly mentioned the alleged drug trafficking network kingpin Jaffer Sadiq, who was arrested in Tamil Nadu by the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Enforcement Directorate.

A probe was launched into the matter, following an FIR.

New Delhi:

A London-bound Vistara flight from Delhi was diverted to Frankfurt on Friday following a bomb threat.

In a statement early Saturday morning, an airline spokesperson said the flight landed safely at the Frankfurt airport and mandatory checks are being conducted. The flight will continue to its destination once cleared by the security agencies.

“Vistara flight UK17 operating from Delhi to London on October 18, 2024 received a security threat on social media. In line with the protocol, all relevant authorities were immediately informed and as a precautionary measure, the pilots decided to divert the flight to Frankfurt,” the spokesperson said.

According to an official in the know, the flight had received a bomb threat.

Meanwhile, Akasa Air said its flight QP 1366 scheduled to fly from Bengaluru to Mumbai on Friday received a security alert shortly before departure.

“Hence as per safety and security procedures, all passengers had to be deplaned as the local authorities followed necessary procedures. We request your understanding as our team on ground did everything possible to reduce inconvenience,” the airline said in a post on X.

In the past few days, nearly 40 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received bomb threats which later turned out to be hoaxes.

The Civil Aviation Ministry plans to put in place strict norms to prevent incidents of hoax bomb threats to airlines, including placing the perpetrators in the no-fly list.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Nagpur:

An IndiGo flight from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh to Hyderabad in Telangana was diverted on Sunday to Nagpur following a bomb threat.

In a statement, IndiGo said its flight 6E-7308, scheduled from Jabalpur to Hyderabad, got diverted to Nagpur International Airport on Sunday morning due to a bomb threat message on board the aircraft.

“Upon landing, all passengers were disembarked, and mandatory security checks were promptly initiated. Passengers were provided with assistance and refreshments,” the statement added.

A police official said the bomb threat message was written on a piece of paper, which was found in the bathroom of the aircraft.

However, nothing suspicious was found after a thorough check by security agencies, the official added.

An airport official said the flight is expected to resume its journey at 2 pm. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Thiruvananthapuram:

A full emergency was declared at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport today following a bomb threat on an Air India flight from Mumbai, airport sources said.

The flight landed at the airport around 8 am and was moved to an isolation bay, they said.

Passengers are being evacuated from the flight, they said.

The bomb threat was communicated by the pilot as the aircraft approached the Thiruvananthapuram airport, the sources said.

There were 135 passengers onboard, they said, adding details on the origin of the threat and other information are awaited. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A school in Delhi’s Greater Kailash area has been cordoned over an email threatening to blow up the school. Police haven’t found anything suspicious yet, but the search operation is still on.

“An email was received at a school in Delhi’s Greater Kailash area, threatening to blow up the school with a bomb. It is written in the email that a bomb was planted in the school yesterday. Nothing has been found in the investigation so far, legal action initiated,” Delhi police said in a statement.

The bomb threat comes just months after 150 schools in Delhi-NCR received a similar email suspected to have been sent from Hungary’s capital Budapest. According to a Delhi Police official, the IP address of these emails has been traced to Budapest and Delhi Police will soon be contacting its counterpart in Hungary for further investigation.

The IP (internet protocol) address is a unique identifying number assigned to every device connected to the internet.

Indore:

The Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh on Friday received a hoax bomb threat after which the case has been registered against unidentified persons in this connection, officials said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Alok Kumar Sharma said that an unidentified person sent an email that threatened a bomb blast on its premises.

“Airport Authorities received an email that some people are going to plant a bomb at the airport. Airport authorities made all the security arrangements and a drill was also carried out. Local police and the CISF were also involved in the drill,” ADCP Sharma said.

He further said that following the investigation by the police and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the threat turned out to be a hoax.

“A case under section 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the unidentified person over the threatening mail,” he added.

Earlier on June 19, Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar International Airport located in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore received a bomb threat following which the police registered a case and initiated a probe into the matter.

The airport authority received the bomb threat through email on Tuesday and later they reported the issue to the Aerodrum police station in the district.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP, Zone 1) Vinod Kumar Meena said, “On Tuesday, the airport authority received a bomb threat through an email to blast the Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar International Airport. The email contains the names of other cities in the country too.”

“After the incident, the airport authority lodged a complaint into the matter at Aerodrum police station in the district. Acting on it, a case has been registered and the police have sought the information from GMail authority about the issue,” Meena said.

He added that such threats were received in the past as well and further investigation into the matter was underway.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

 A Mumbai-bound IndiGo flight from Chennai received a bomb threat message on Tuesday, but it landed safely here, an airport source said.

The bomb threat message was received at the private airline’s call centre in New Delhi, the source said without delving into specifics.

The flight landed safely at the Mumbai airport at 10.30 pm, he said.

“IndiGo flight 6E 5149, operating from Chennai to Mumbai, had received a bomb threat. Upon landing in Mumbai, the crew followed protocol and the aircraft was taken to an isolation bay,” the airline said in a statement.

All passengers have safely disembarked the aircraft, IndiGo said.

“We are working with security agencies and post completion of all security checks, the aircraft will be positioned back in the terminal area,” it added.

Earlier in the day, as many airports, including in Varanasi, Chennai, Patna and Jaipur, received bomb threat emails, prompting authorities to scramble contingency measures and carry out anti-sabotage checks that lasted hours, and each of them was found to be a hoax, official sources said.

Security was beefed up as agencies swept the airport terminals after the emails were received around 12.40 pm from the ID exhumedyou888@gmail.com.

The airports in Varanasi, Chennai, Patna, Nagpur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Coimbatore and Jabalpur were among those that received the hoax threats, as per the officials. PTI IAS RSY

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)