KOCHI: Police will seek mutual legal assistance (MLA) from Switzerland as part of its investigation into a bomb hoax at Kochi’s Nedumbassery airport in April 2023. The state government had recently given its nod for the request to be placed with the Union ministry of home affairs (MoHA).
It was on April 9, 2023, that Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) officials received the email that contained the threat to carry out an act of suicide bombing at the airport entrance. It instructed CIAL authorities to send 10 bitcoins to a given cryptocurrency wallet address to prevent the deed. A probe found the threat to be fake.
“The probe revealed that the email was sent by an unidentified person using a Proton email ID. With the assistance of the cyber cell, we tried to track the ID. But, the attempt proved unsuccessful. There has been no response from Proton to our requests,” an officer said.
According to officers, as Proton is a Swiss company, it was then decided to approach it through official channels.
“The crime branch inspector general, who is the Interpol liaison officer in Kerala, will place the request with MoHA, which will approach Swiss authorities through the ministry of external affairs,” he said.
After receiving the request, the Swiss agency which represents Interpol in the country will collect the required information and transfer it to authorities in Kerala.