The Delhi Police claimed on Tuesday that a Class-12 student, who allegedly sent hoax bomb threats to more than 400 city schools, has been identified and that his parents are linked to an NGO that supports a political party. A police officer without revealing the identity said the boy was questioned and during investigation, it was found that the NGO had also voiced support to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
According to police, the NGO’s proximity to a political party raises critical questions regarding a possible larger conspiracy to create public unrest through disruptive tactics.
Addressing a press conference, Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Madhup Tewari said they were tracking e-mails and because of a virtual private network (VPN), it was difficult to track the origins of the e-mails. “Schools had been receiving (bomb threat) emails continuously, it started around 14th February. So, we conducted an in-depth investigation. But due to the usage of VPN etc, it was not easy to get a breakthrough…But we found a technical window regarding the email received on 8th Jan. We zeroed in on a juvenile and found that he sent the mail…We suspected an anti-national or sabotage angle.”
“When we did the profiling of the family of the juvenile as part of the investigation, we found that one of his parents is connected to an organisation with deep connections to an NGO. As per our preliminary info, it was found that the NGO has deep connections to a particular political party. It supports that political party on several issues and had also questioned the legitimacy of the hanging of Afzal Guru. This is a preliminary investigation. Further investigation is yet to be done…He had been sending the mail since the beginning. There are at least 7 instances where we can say that it was he who sent the emails…”
Police confirmed that schools in Delhi started receiving bomb threats from February 12, 2024 and that they were investigating the entire network.
(With Agency inputs)