Uttar Pradesh student threatened to blow up school if not paid ransom, booked

The police was informed immediately and it rushed a bomb disposal squad to the school which has more than 400 students. However, nothing was found in the search.

A class 10th student of a school in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly was detained on Tuesday for allegedly threatening to blow up his school if he was not paid ₹2 lakh as ransom.

No explosive was found at the school in search by the bomb disposal squad. (AFP Photo/Representative)

The police have registered a case against the boy, who also works as a newspaper hawker, under sections 386 (extortion by invoking fear of death or grievous hurt) and 507 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to the manager of the school Anil Singh, the boy wrote a letter to the school on Sunday threatening a “Pulwama-like” attack if he was not paid the ransom amount and claimed to have planted bombs on the school campus and also in his house.

The police was informed immediately and it rushed a bomb disposal squad to the school which has more than 400 students. However, nothing was found in the search.

“We heaved a sigh of relief when the bomb squad didn’t find any explosive,” said Singh.

The matter didn’t end there as the school received another letter on Tuesday demanding ₹2 lakh and threatening with consequences.

Police investigations found that the paper used for writing the letters were torn from a science notebook following which notebooks of students of class IX and X were checked, which led to the alleged culprit.

“We figured out who the accused was. When the police questioned him, he failed to give any satisfactory response and said that someone had forced him to write the letters,” said SSP Shailesh Pandey.

Police say they have registered a case of extortion and were also trying to verify the involvement of a second person in the case.