Big reveal! Political party links in Delhi school bomb threats, say Delhi Police

Delhi Police, on Tuesday, revealed that a private school student, arrested for sending bomb threats to various educational institutions, had emailed over 400 schools with the threats.

Special CP Law and Order, Madhup Tiwari, shared that the student's family had connections to an NGO, which had ties to a particular political party and had previously been involved in legitimizing Afzal Guru.

The student, a Class 12 pupil, had been sending hoax bomb threat emails to schools since last year, aiming to avoid taking his exams. The police launched an extensive investigation after receiving multiple bomb threats that began in February of the previous year.

Tiwari explained that the emails were sent in a highly sophisticated manner, often using VPNs, making it difficult to trace the sender. “The emails were sent in a very sophisticated manner, including the use of VPNs. Hence, we had difficulties in tracing the emails,” he said.

The breakthrough came on January 8, when the police identified the juvenile as the primary suspect. Upon his arrest, it was revealed that he had sent bomb threat emails to more than 400 schools.

“We suspected an anti-national or sabotage angle. When we did the profiling of the family of the juvenile as part of the investigation, we found that one of his parents is connected to an organisation with deep connections to an NGO. As per our preliminary info, it was found that the NGO has deep connections to a particular political party,” Tiwari said.

Additionally, the suspect was linked to more than 250 bomb threat emails sent to schools on May 1 of the previous year, among other incidents. “This is a preliminary investigation. Further investigation is yet to be done,” Tiwari confirmed.

The student had also sent bomb threat emails to 23 schools last Thursday, which the police were able to trace through Gmail. Upon further questioning, the student admitted to sending the emails with the help of other students using VPNs.

This development came amid mounting criticism of Delhi Police’s handling of the bomb threats, which had disrupted school activities in the city.

Chief Minister Atishi, former CM Arvind Kejriwal, and former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia expressed strong disapproval of both the Delhi Police and the central government for their failure to curb the ongoing bomb threats.

In December, bomb threat emails were sent to at least 40 Delhi schools, including DPS RK Puram and GD Goenka School in Paschim Vihar, demanding a ransom of $30,000. Similar threats were also sent to more than 30 schools on December 13 and 14.