PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry Cyber Crime Police have sought the assistance of central agencies, including the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), to investigate a series of hoax email threats targeting key government institutions and a premier medical facility in the union territory.
According to authorities, the emails are being routed through servers located outside India and sent from multiple email IDs originating from different countries. This has been throwing challenges in efforts to trace their source. Officials believe that the use of foreign-based servers and airmail-style anonymous communications are posing challenges to the investigation.
The I4C, operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has been roped in to assist with the technical aspects of the investigation and coordinate with international agencies. Police have confirmed that they are working across borders to identify the origin of these threats and bring the perpetrators to justice. The newly-trained cyber commandos are also working on the investigation to trace the perpetrators.
It is to be noted that in recent months, the Raj Nivas, district collectorate, and the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) have received threatening emails, sparking security concerns. The most recent incident occurred on April 14, when an anonymous email to the police headquarters claimed a bomb had been planted at Raj Nivas, prompting a search by the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS). The alert was later declared a hoax.
Furthermore, a bomb threat over email was received at the district collectorate last week, which turned out to be a hoax later. In July last year, JIPMER had received a bomb threat email, followed by another sent to the French Consulate. In a separate case, a threat to a local fire station was made via phone call, leading to the arrest of an intoxicated man reportedly suffering from mental health issues.