MADURAI: While the police department is yet to make a breakthrough in case of the hoax bomb mails targeting educational institutions and hotels across the state, the cyber crime department authorities from Chennai on Tuesday said that they have formed special teams to nab the unidentified persons who used VPN (virtual private network) and Torrent for sending the mails.
The incident came to light after the mail IDs of schools and hotels received mails claiming that bomb blasts will take place in the premises, forcing the management to vacate students from the schools and visitors from the hotels for their safety.
The visitors and students were allowed entry again, only after thorough inspection was carried out in the premises. "In Madurai city and rural alone, the bomb detection and disposal squad had checked around 12 places within the last few weeks, in vain.
However, the police can't take such bomb threats lightly, as it might turn fatal, if the threat is real. Hence, every time if such mail is received, we will carry out proper checks," said a police officer. He further mentioned that in case of hoax calls, the police can trace the person.
However, the recent mails are being sent via VPN and Torrent, which makes it difficult to crack. Further, a police official added that the mail content is often similar as they use names of members of politicians' families, and also mention about the mail id owner's link with banned organisations
"Though the police cannot narrow down whether it was an individual or group of persons sending the mail, we believe that they belong to a particular team considering the similarities in content. The police are also unaware as to why these users target some particular schools and hotels only," he added.
"The police in the city and district level formed special teams to investigate the matter, while the state team in Chennai is also joining hands with the teams to nab the unidentified persons," said another officer.