Panic after B’luru school gets hoax bomb call, search on for accused

Police said the National Public School received the threat, after which school management and police ensured students were taken to safe areas, and a thorough search of the premises was instituted.

A private school in Bengaluru received an email about a bomb planted in the campus, prompting the city police to rush to the spot, officials said on Friday. The threat later turned out to be a hoax, officials added.

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Police said the National Public School received the threat, after which school management and police ensured students were taken to safe areas, and a thorough search of the premises was instituted.

“Our team is searching the entire school with a bomb disposal team and dog squad. The students are already taken to a safe place.” Laxman B Nimbargi, DCP Bengaluru (West), said.

“We are currently investigating the person who sent the bomb threat, and a case is yet to be filed,” he said, noting that further details would be revealed after the investigation.

The hoax call to a private school in Bengaluru was the latest in a string of threat emails issued to schools in the state. On April 8 and 9 last year, more than 15 schools in Bengaluru discovered emails claiming bombs were planted inside the campus.

In the days that followed, Karnataka police registered a case under cyber terrorism, and the south division of Bengaluru was asked to probe the case. Even though it was the first threat email case to be registered under a cyber terrorism charge, police are yet to make any arrests.

According to police, since more than 15 cases were reported across the city, the task of investigating all the cases was given to the Bengaluru south division. So far, no arrests have been made in the case, they added.

However, according to senior officers, the string of calls had changed the way police dealt with such cases.

“The cases of the hoax are usually charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, however, since the threats to schools had caused widespread panic and impacted the lives of people, we are applying cyber terrorism provisions under section 66 (F) of the Information Technology Act,” an officer said, requesting anonymity.

Cyberterrorism charges were last imposed in 2014 in the case of Mehdi Masroor Biswas, an engineer who allegedly ran a pro-Islamic State Twitter handle.

In its charge sheet, Bengaluru police said that Biswas would monitor the developments of IS on the internet and TV and assist his followers, who were willing to enter the IS territory.

He would tweet about vulnerable sections along the border based on which volunteers entered the ISIS territory, the charge sheet added.

In the past, too, bomb threats have been issued by email, however, the sections under the IT act were not imposed.

In 2016, two students were arrested for sending hoax emails threatening to bomb Bengaluru’s international airport. The duo were booked under sections 177 (false information), 505 (public mischief), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) and 385 (putting a person in fear of injury to commit extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

In another incident, Vidhan Souda police arrested a miscreant who threatened to plant a bomb in the City Civil Court. Sunil, a resident of Kadugodi, was arrested after tracing a phone call he made to the court on Tuesday. According to police, around 11 am, he called the police control room and said he planned a bomb on the court premise. The police called the bomb squad to the spot and conducted an investigation, and found the call to hoax.

He was arrested following an investigation, and he told the police that he was frustrated with the court proceeding he was part of, getting extended.