The Delhi Police on Wednesday said that an email threat about a bomb was received by the Ministry of Home Affairs office in Delhi's North Block.
The threat was subsequently declared a hoax after nothing objectionable was found.
The threat was received through an email at around 3.30pm by a senior officer posted at the ministry, PTI reported, citing an Delhi Fire Services (DFS) official.
It was written in the email that the "building will explode as bomb is planted", a police officer said and added that the IP address and other details of the mail are under investigation.
A bomb disposal squad, along with fire tenders, was dispatched for the search operation at the North Block.
{{/usCountry}}A bomb disposal squad, along with fire tenders, was dispatched for the search operation at the North Block.
{{/usCountry}}"A thorough search has been carried out in the entire building and nothing suspicious has been found. Security agencies have come to the conclusion that the mail was a hoax," an unidentified official in the home ministry told PTI.
The incident is the latest among a spate of hoax bomb emails that have been sent to schools, airports, hospitals and jails in the national capital.
Besides Delhi, even schools in Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur and Ahmedabad have received similar threats.
After a hoax email threat prompted an evacuation of students and staff at over 150 schools in Delhi, an investigation was launched by the Delhi Police. The threat mail, purportedly sent from a mail.ru server, claimed that explosives were planted on school premises in Delhi.
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On Monday, the Delhi Police said that the hoax bomb threats are suspected of having originated from Budapest, adding that it would contact its counterpart in Hungary for further investigations.
An officer involved in the investigation said the threat was sent from the mail ID, ‘sawariim@mail.ru’, which had a domain based in Russia. “It’s likely the IP addresses may be associated with a VPN and establishing the person’s connectivity will be a challenge. We will seek Interpol’s help by sending it a Demi Official (DO) letter, seeking the details of the person who signed up for the email address,” an officer had said earlier.
On May 6, the Union home ministry stressed the need to prepare a detailed protocol and standard operating procedures (SOP) for such situations.
The home secretary asked the Delhi Police and schools to coordinate closely to avoid any unnecessary panic due to misinformation. It had also emphasised the need to enhance security, CCTV cameras and regular monitoring of emails in schools.
The Delhi government, too, issued an advisory to the educational institutes asking them to check their official emails timely after the hoax bomb threat at schools in the national capital.