Bengaluru school gets bomb threat in e-mail, police call it a hoax

According to police, the hoax bomb threat was sent to the school located in Ideal Township of Rajarajeshwarinagar. Laxman B Nimbargi, the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (West), said that on seeing the email at around 8:30 am, the school management alerted the police.

A private school in Rajarajeshwarinagar in South Bengaluru, owned by Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar, received a hoax bomb threat through an email on Monday, forcing school authorities to evacuate the premises.

A private school in Rajarajeshwarinagar in South Bengaluru, owned by Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar, received a hoax bomb threat through an email on Monday, forcing school authorities to evacuate the premises. (HT Photo)

According to police, the hoax bomb threat was sent to the school located in Ideal Township of Rajarajeshwarinagar. Laxman B Nimbargi, the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (West), said that on seeing the email at around 8:30 am, the school management alerted the police.

“Within half an hour, over 1,500 students were evacuated from the school premises as a preventive measure and shifted to neighbouring schools. A bomb disposal squad, sniffer dog squad and jurisdiction police were rushed to the school, and they inspected the school premises. The school has declared a holiday over the incident,” he said.

“Between 8.30 am to 8.45 am when the school management checked the official email id, they found an email from an unknown person. The email said that there was a bomb inside the school and it will explode soon. They soon informed us (police control room). Based on that, we have dispatched our anti-sabotage squad and bomb disposal squad to the locations,” Nimbargi added.

The officer said that the teams checked both school buildings and cleared them. “Apart from the two buildings that we are under threat, we have checked the premises of the campus and the parking area as well. They were clear. We didn’t find anything during the search,” he added.

According to the DCP, the school will reopen on Tuesday, and only one school received the threat email.

Reacting to the incident, Shivakumar said that all the students were evacuated and there was no reason for concern among parents.

“In our school, our staff saw this email this morning (Monday), but it came yesterday (Sunday). The email has come from an ID with the name Huccha Venkat. When I was informed, I called the commissioner and other officers. By then, we had evacuated the students to another campus of ours. We suspect it is a hoax call, but we have filed an FIR,” he said.

Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra said that the police department has taken the development seriously as miscreants have targeted Bengaluru education institutions earlier with hoax bomb threats, earlier as well.

“The police squad has reached the school, and they are conducting inspections,” he stated. “I have also asked to take action against miscreants,” he stated.

On April 8, At least 15 schools in Bengaluru received bomb threats via email. A senior police officer privy to the development said that the threat prima facie appeared to be a hoax as the bomb detection squads did not find any explosives during the search operations.

The mail, seen by HT, read: “A very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, attention is not a joke, this is not a joke, a very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, immediately call the police and sappers, hundreds of lives may suffer, including yours, do not delay, now everything is only in your hands! [sic].”

A special team was formed to investigate these emails, and the latest case comes as the police are yet to make a breakthrough.