Notably, a Class 12 student of a private school was apprehended for his alleged involvement in the hoax emails to hundreds of schools since 2024. It was found during the investigation that the detained student sent out the threat emails to schools to avoid sitting for school exams.
Commissioner Tiwari on Tuesday said there have been thousands of hoax emails forwarded to several schools since February 2024 and the police have made all-out efforts to track the sender. “The emails were sent in a very sophisticated manner, including the use of VPNs. Hence, we had difficulties in tracing the emails,” he said.
Police got information about the juvenile suspect on January 8 and it was found after his arrest that he had sent hoax threat emails to more than 400 schools. “We suspected an anti-national or sabotage angle. When we did the profiling of the juvenile’s family 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,” Tiwari said.
Tiwari also said the suspect was involved in sending hoax emails to more than 250 schools on May 1, 2024, and other incidents. “This is a preliminary investigation. Further investigation is yet to be done,” Tiwari said.
The suspect had sent hoax emails to 23 schools on Thursday last week. Police found the user had sent them through Gmail, which helped track him down. The student later confessed that emails were sent by him and some other students usia ng VPN.
The big revelation came after Delhi Police came under fire for the inability to contain the bomb threats to schools and the deteriorating law and order situation in the city. Chief Minister Atishi, former CM Arvind Kejriwal, and former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had slammed the Delhi Police and Centre over the repeated bomb threats that disrupted classes.
At least 40 Delhi schools, including DPS RK Puram and GD Goenka School in Paschim Vihar, had received bomb threat emails on December 9, 2024, in which the sender demanded $30,000 as ransom. Similar emails targeted more than 30 schools on December 13 and 14.
