CHENNAI: Hoax bomb threats sent via email, to public places, high-profile government offices and houses of popular politicians and film personalities have become a daily menace particularly in Chennai, with at least nine places receiving such threats in three consecutive days last week.
The issue has become a regular affair in the past two years with the police registering over 60 FIRs since 2023, with some filed by clubbing a few threats received on a particular day.
Yet, the Tamil Nadu police have not been able to make any breakthrough in identifying the culprits, with sources citing the use of virtual private networks by the offenders to route the emails as the key challenge in tracing them.
Meanwhile, police officials said though the cases were in the nature of cyber crimes, it has become a standard practice to transfer them to the anti-terrorism squad of the state police for investigation, as they deal with bomb threats. The recent pattern shows that an email bearing the name of a celebrity or politician lands at the office of the DGP, claiming that an explosive placed at a prominent location would go off soon.
In some instances, the mail is sent directly to the intended place - one such message was received by the management of a temple in Mylapore in July.
As the targets include places like residence of chief minister and leader of the opposition, the Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, BJP’s state headquarters, and places of worship, the local police and the bomb squad have the unenviable task of doing a thorough search of the premises before declaring the threat a hoax. Sources said, with multiple threats received on a single day, the squad’s task turned hectic.
Film personalities have also become a target of late as S Ve Shekher’s residence received multiple threats in particular.
“Almost all senders use a privacy-focused web browser to send these emails, making it difficult to track the original IP address. These browsers use multiple VPNs to push out the mails, so when we trace them, we reach only a fake IP address,” a senior officer said.
Another major challenge is the lack of cooperation from international law enforcement agencies, especially in the US, where most VPN providers and organisations offering end-to-end encrypted mail services are registered, he highlighted.
