Delhi bomb threat: Police say clues hint at 'big conspiracy'; probing China, ISI links

A day after over 100 schools in Delhi-NCR received bomb threats which turned out to be hoaxes, a barrage of messages claiming suspicious objects were recovered from some educational institutions are making the rounds on WhatsApp. Amid this, on Thursday (May 2), Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police Suman Nalwa cautioned the public to verify the source of such messages before believing or forwarding them.

This comes asthe Delhi Police's anti-terror unit, which was probing the bomb threats on Wednesday (May 1), revealed that the investigation will focus on an organisation rather than an individual.

As per an ANI report citing sources within the Delhi police, "The timing of the threat given the elections, mass collection of data from schools, use of Russian IP addresses — all these point towards a conspiracy."

The probe will also explore the probability of ISI or Chinese involvement."The use of a strong server has raised suspicions regarding China. But, the investigation is still at a very early stage."

Fake News

DCP Nalwa, on X (formerly Twitter) cautioned people against the "fake news," regarding the recovery of "suspicious objects", which she said was "totally false".

"Fake news in the form of WhatsApp messages regarding recovery of some suspicious objects being recovered in some schools is going on. These messages are totally false," wrote Nalwa.

"Please check the veracity and source of information behind every such message before believing or forwarding it," added the senior police official.

Fake news in the form of WhatsApp messages regarding recovery of some suspicious objects being recovered in some schools is going on. These messages are totally false. Please check the veracity and source of information behind every such message before believing or forwarding it. — Suman Nalwa (@sumannalwa) May 2, 2024

Delhi Bomb Threat

On May 1 (Wednesday) over 100 schools in the Indian national capital, a few in the adjoining region of Gautam Buddha Nagar aka Noida, and one in Lucknow received bomb threats via email.

Sent early morning around 4:15 am, the same message was emailed to many schools. Responding urgently to the threat, the schools were evacuated, with students sent back to their homes as a precautionary measure.

A thorough search and investigation of the institutions by police officers,bomb detection teams, bomb disposal squads, and officials of the Delhi Fire Service revealed nothing. Because of this, the threats were concluded to be hoaxes.

The police tried to trace the origin of the hoax bomb emails and found that they were sent using a virtual private network (VPN) that routed and rerouted data via foreign servers. The police managed to narrow down the internet protocol (IP) address after retracing the VPN traffic and, as per reports; the emails arebelieved to have beensent from Russia and were aimed at creating panic.

(With inputs from agencies)