The Delhi Police Special Cell in its FIR registered on Wednesday evening revealed that the perpetrators of the hoax bomb threat letters received by nearly 200 Delhi schools wanted to “create mass panic and disturb public order”.
At least 125 bomb threat calls were received from different schools from 5.47 am to 2.13 pm on Wednesday, according to an official source, who has access to the FIR. The person said that after receiving the calls, PCR vehicles were rushed to schools, and district police, BDS, MAC, Special Cell and Crime Control Room, DDMA, NDRF, Fire CATS and several other agencies were alerted.
Further, a part of the FIR states that the movement of these units to the schools “resulted in massive inconvenience,” according to the source. The officials evacuated the schools in an “elaborate exercise” and carried out anti-sabotage checks across the city, he said. The emails were apparently sent with the “conspiratorial intention of creating mass panic and to disturb the public.”
“These resulted in massive inconvenience and elaborate exercise across the city in safely evacuating the schools and carrying out anti-sabotage checks. It appears that the emails used to send the threats were made with the conspiratorial intention of creating mass panic and to disturb the public been made out,” the FIR stated.
The FIR has been registered at Special Cell Police Station under IPC sections 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), and 120 (B) (punishment of criminal conspiracy).
Additionally, according to police sources, the investigation will be done by the Counter Intelligence Team Special Cell. The IFSO unit is also trying to find out the origin from where the mail was sent, till now the connection to Russia (IP address) has been revealed as the domain of the email is “mail.ru”. The investigating agency is also probing the angle of joint conspiracy between China and ISI to ascertain if there is a larger conspiracy at work in the matter.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police on Thursday urged the public to not believe in the claims circulating on WhatsApp groups about the bomb threat letters received by over 200 schools in Delhi and adjoining Noida region, calling the claims of explosives being found in the schools “false”.
Police made an appeal to people to not believe in the audio messages that have surfaced on WhatsApp groups making false claims about the bomb threat that schools in Delhi-NCR received on Wednesday morning. “Some audio messages are being pushed on WhatsApp and other chat groups that some suspicious objects were found in some schools,” a statement issued by the Delhi Police.
Further, they said that there is no truth in the claims of actual bombs found in the schools that have been circulating.
In some of the audio messages that have been seen spreading such messages, a woman is seen telling mothers that despite the police calling the threats a hoax, an actual bomb has been recovered from the premises of some schools.
“I request all to please convey further that these are false messages. Messages doing rounds are as below,” the police said taking note of such WhatsApp messages that will create panic among the citizens.
Around 200 schools in Delhi-NCR received an identical threat email Wednesday claiming that explosives had been planted in their premises, triggering massive evacuations and searches as panic-stricken parents rushed to pick up their children. Nothing was found during searches by authorities which later declared it a mass hoax.
