MHA office latest to receive bomb hoax email

The incident is the latest among a spate of hoax bomb emails sent to over 25 hospitals, 200 schools, the IGI Airport and Tihar jail in Delhi-NCR over the past month

A joint secretary at the ministry of home affairs (MHA) office in New Delhi received a bomb threat in an email on Wednesday afternoon, but the same was later found to be a hoax following extensive checks, police said.

Police personnel at the north block on Wednesday afternoon. (PTI)

Upon receipt of the email around 3.30pm, personnel of Delhi Police, Delhi Fire Services (DFS), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and bomb squad teams were deployed at the office, located on the North Block near the Parliament. A case was lodged into the incident, police said.

A senior police officer, on the condition of anonymity, said the email was sent in the morning and found during the day. “The CISF, which handles the security of the building, along with a bomb squad conducted searches. We were there to help them. The accused sent an email saying that there’s a bomb inside the MHA building and that it will explode. It was found to be a hoax. We are now in talks with senior officials to decide the legal course of action,” the officer said.

A DFS officer said they were called to the North Block with two fire tenders but were sent back in a few hours.

The incident is the latest among a spate of hoax bomb emails sent to over 25 hospitals, 200 schools, the IGI Airport and Tihar jail in Delhi-NCR over the past month.

Delhi police lodged multiple cases, but are yet to make any headway into the case.

On May 1, over 200 schools in Delhi were evacuated and shut after bomb threats were received on their email IDs. Over the next fortnight, multiple Delhi hospitals, schools, IGI Airport and Tihar jail reported similar hoax threats.

Police said that the email sent to the MHA officer was also from an unknown sender, using a VPN (virtual private network). “Nothing suspicious was found. All the offices were checked properly. It was a prank,” a second officer said.