Weeks after multiple bomb hoaxes caused panic across numerous schools in Delhi, city police have uncovered a well-thought-out plan by a minor aimed at avoiding his school exams. The police have taken a Class 12 student into custody for making threats that kept the city administration on high alert for several days.
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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.
Minor’s Bomb Hoaxes Disrupt Exams and Trigger Panic Across Delhi 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.
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.
The bomb squad and sniffer dogs took over the campuses while the authorities sent students back. They found nothing suspicious at the end of the day, but ended up wasting a day by giving students a surprise holiday.
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Bomb Hoaxes Spark Panic in Delhi Schools and Airlines, Prompt Crisis Management Training
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 claimed that small bombs were planted inside the school buildings and demanded $30,000 to defuse them.
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.
Facing such frequent fake threats, the city police had also started training teachers and school staff in dealing with such crises. The police and the Education department organized a seminar 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.
Delhi Police detained a 25-year-old unemployed man last year for one such bomb hoax, while Mumbai police took a 17-year-old dropout into custody for attempting to frame a friend by sending the threat mail.