BENGALURU: It turns out that 15 schools, and not 14, received bomb threat emails on April 8. A reputed private school noticed the bomb threat mail on Monday — three days after it was sent! — after which they alerted the police, who thoroughly searched the premises and confirmed it as a hoax.
The Cubbon Park police are considering taking up a case of negligence against the school, the reputed Bishop Cotton Girls’ School, located at St Mark’s Road, for reporting the threat three days after receiving the email.
The school management on Monday afternoon informed the Cubbon Park police that they too had received an email of bomb scare on Friday just like 14 other schools on Bengaluru’s outskirts and rural areas. The school alerted the police around 3.30 pm, ten minutes after they noticed the email.
A team of policemen along with bomb disposal and sniffer dog squads rushed to the school and conducted a thorough search till 5 pm to find that it, too, was a hoax like at the 14 other schools.A senior police officer said the school principal checked the mail on Monday afternoon.
Maruthi, Police Inspector, Cubbon Park police station, said, “There were no children in the school as exams were over. We have asked the principal to give us a valid reason in writing about their negligence in seeing the email sent to them on Friday and alerting the police on Monday.
If the reasons are not justified, a case of negligence will be filed against the school. An FIR was also filed against miscreants on Monday evening.” said On April 8, 14 private schools in and around the city received similar emails claiming that “powerful bombs” have been planted on their premises.
Staff NOT AWARE?
Two staff members at Bishop Cotton Girls’ School told TNIE that they were not aware of any threat to their school, but had heard of such mails sent to other schools. The school had no students as the final and model exams concluded by April 4. Repeated attempts to contact the school administration and Principal Dr Lavanya Mithran failed to evoke any response.
Police commissioner Kamal Pant said five teams have been formed to probe the hoax emails sent to the schools. “A team of experts from the cyber crime wing is trying to trace the source of the mails and track the miscreants who sent the e-mails,” he added.