Sent email ‘just for fun’: 13-year-old boy to Delhi police on hoax bomb scare

The boy was allegedly influenced by the news of another teenager, who made a similar hoax bomb scare over a call few days ago.

Published on: Jun 23, 2024, 14:36:38 IST

By HT News Desk

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A 13-year-old boy apprehended for sending a hoax bomb scare to the Dubai bound flight from Delhi airport, confessed to the Delhi police that he had sent the mail “just for fun,” PTI reported.

Hoax bomb threats to airports and hospitals have increased in recent times. (Representative image) (HT File)

The boy was allegedly influenced by the news of another teenager, who made a similar hoax bomb scare over a call few days ago, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani was quoted by PTI as saying.

The incident occurred on Monday when the Delhi airport received an email regarding bomb on a Dubai bound June 18 flight. An FIR was lodged, and investigation was launched. “All the guidelines, protocols and SOPs were followed to ensure the safety and security of the passengers,” the DCP said.

However, during investigation, the email was found to be hoax. The email-id traced to Pithoragarh in Uttaranchal, was found to be deleted immediately after sending the email, Rangnani said.

Also read | Back-to-back bomb threats in Patna, Vadodara airports; security heightened

A police team apprehended the boy, who told them that his parents had given him a mobile for study purposes through which he sent the email and later deleted the ID. “He did not share any information with his parents as he was scared. He was apprehended and handed over to his parents,” the DCP added.

Hoax bomb threats to airports and hospitals have increased in recent times. On Tuesday, 41 airports, including those in Jaipur, Chennai and Varanasi received bomb threat over emails. This led to extensive anti-sabotage checks that lasted for hours, but all the threats were found to be hoaxes, HT reported.

On Saturday morning, an Air Arabia flight scheduled to leave for Sharjah from the Calicut International airport was grounded after receiving a hoax bomb threat.

Also read | Chennai-Mumbai IndiGo flight, CSMIA, 60 hospitals get hoax bomb threat e-mails

Last week, around 60 hospitals across Mumbai also received hoax emails about bombs kept in their premises. Mumbai police said this included both private and public hospitals, and all emails were sent using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to the hospital's public mail-id's.

Hoax bomb threats and messages disrupt flight schedules and also require a thorough inspection of all passengers, their luggage and the entire aircraft. Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) had proposed a five-year flying ban for those found guilty of such acts, NDTV reported.

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HT News Desk
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