Ramaiah Institute of Technology.
Credit: msrit.edu
Bengaluru: Three well-known engineering colleges in Bengaluru city received bomb threat emails on Friday, which police declared as ‘hoax’ after extensive searches on the college premises.
A well-placed officer, on condition of anonymity, told Deccan Herald that the email domain was “hotmail”.
The contents of the email read, “Bomb has been planted under the desk.” This was emailed to all three colleges on Friday afternoon around 1 pm, according to a senior police officer.
Lokesh B Jagalasar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) south division, said that BMS Institute of Technology and Bangalore Institute of Technology, located in the southern part of the city, received the email threat.
Ramaiah Institute of Technology (RIT) near MSR Nagar in north Bengaluru also received an identical email, according to Shekhar H Tekkannavar, DCP central division.
The threat emails were sent to administration emails of all the colleges around 1 pm, but they were seen only after 3 pm. However, the RIT email came to light after the other two colleges informed the police about threat messages.
Bomb squads, canine squads, and anti-sabotage teams were pressed into service, and a combing operation was done, which confirmed that no “explosives” were planted.
Separate cases have been filed in Hanumantha Nagar, Kumaraswamy Layout, and Sadashivanagar police stations.
A well-placed officer said that the emails were sent concealing the IP address using a virtual private network (VPN). They would further proceed with writing to the email service provider.
In the last one year alone, more than 10 incidents of such hoax bomb threat emails have been reported in Bengaluru.
In November 2023, as many as 70 schools in Bengaluru commissionerate jurisdiction and rural jurisdiction received bomb threat emails from identical email IDs, which were declared hoax by the police after conducting extensive searches.
Bengaluru city police had even approached Interpol to seek information from an international email service provider. But got nothing.
After that, government museums, five-star hotels, and several hospitals also received similar email threats, but no cases related to the incidents have seen a logical end.