COIMBATORE: Unable to trace the miscreants who have been sending hoax bomb threats to private schools in the city through email. Coimbatore police have sought help from domain or service providers of the emails from where the anonymous threats originated.
A private school near Vadavalli received two bomb threat emails consecutively on March 1 and 3. Another branch of the school in Kanchipuram also received a threat.
Earlier, in February, 13 schools received similar threats. On Monday two schools- one in Ramanathapuram and the other at Subramaniyampalayam near Thudiyalur received similar emails just hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit. An international school in Nilgiris received a threat mail on Monday night.
While police denied permission for the PM’s road show citing security threats, the hoax threat emails to the private schools in the city, made the situation hard. Tension gripped parents, students, and police until it was declared as hoax. Because the PM’s arrival was scheduled amid the security concerns. However, the police are finding it hard to identify the whereabouts of those who sent the emails.
A case was booked under sections 506(ii) (Punishment for criminal intimidation) and 507 (Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of IPC.
A police officer said, “Identifying the sender of an anonymous email is a challenging and complex process, and it requires the involvement of specialised cyber security experts. They sent a mail with a list of schools claiming their target of the blast.
The seriousness of such a threat should not be underestimated, as it may range from a hoax or prank to a genuine threat of harm. Because Coimbatore is a communally sensitive city that witnessed a serial bomb blast in 1998 and also the ISIS-inspired Car bomb blast in October 2022.
We cannot leave any single mail, call, or alert that is related to a threat to the city without proper investigation, even if it is fake. These four hoax threat emails have also been handled in the same way.”
City Police Commissioner V Balakrishnan said that as it is difficult to find the sender of the emails, they planned to rope technical experts who specialise in tracing anonymous communications, into the investigation.
Meanwhile, the Cybercrime police have sent requisitions to the domains/email service providers of concerned hoax emails seeking their help for investigation.