As five more pvt. schools receive bomb threat e-mails, police lens on Germany-based platform

Five private schools in the Capital received bomb threat e-mails on Wednesday morning, which later turned out to be hoaxes but disrupted classes as the schools were evacuated and students sent home.

The schools that received bomb threat e-mails are Richmond Global School in Paschim Vihar, St. Thomas School in Dwarka, Vasant Valley School in Vasant Kunj, The Mother’s International School in Hauz Khas and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Lodi Estate.

St. Thomas School in Dwarka received a hoax bomb threat e-mail on Tuesday as well. Since Monday, 10 educational institutions have received hoax bomb threat e-mails.

According to a senior Delhi Police officer, the threat e-mails were received between 4.16 a.m. and 8.12 a.m. “Richmond Global School was the first to receive the mail around 4.16 a.m., and The Mother’s International School the last at 8.12 a.m.,” said the officer.

“Multiple teams from Delhi Fire Services, Delhi Police and Bomb Disposal Squads were rushed to the site. The schools were evacuated and checked thoroughly, but nothing was found,” said the officer. According to the initial investigation, the e-mails were sent from a Germany-based encrypted e-mail service named Tuta Mail. “The senders used TutaCrypt of Tuta Mail to send those threats,” said the officer.

“The medium used is an open source, end-to-end encrypted and makes it difficult to zero in on the true source,” added the officer. 

Earlier this year, the Directorate of Education issued standard operating procedures for handling bomb threats in schools, which included the installation of CCTV cameras in and around schools, devising evacuation plans, and conducting regular safety audits and mock drills.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal took to X to attack the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Delhi, saying, “For the third day in a row, bomb threats have been issued to Delhi schools. Neither Union Home Minister Amit Shah nor the BJP’s four-engine governments seem to care about the safety of Delhi’s children. The BJP is hell-bent on turning Delhi into a jungle-raj.”

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva had said that it was regrettable that AAP leaders were trying to “politicise” the issue and “create tension” in Delhi.