Hoax bomb threat at private school in Ludhiana keeps cops on toes

A teenaged boy, who wanted to have a holiday in his school, along with other friends, sent a threatening email to the principal, stating that the school would be blown up on October 5 as a bomb has been planted on its premises.

The email received on the email address of Sri Guru Harkrishan Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Dhandra, on Friday evening, panicked the school principal, who raised the matter before the school management and also announced a holiday on Saturday for precautionary purpose. The principal also informed the Ludhiana police about the mail. A copy of the threat email is available with The Tribune.

The information about planting of a bomb on the school premises kept senior police officials on toes. A bomb squad team and the police force rushed to the school and conducted an anti-sabotage checking till late on Friday night. Even this morning, an extensive anti-sabotage checking was conducted. However, nothing was found.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (South) Harjinder Singh said on the basis of the threat mail, when the police extracted back up details of the email and system used to send the same, two mobile numbers were found attached. One of the numbers was found working in Ludhiana while the other in Bihar.

On the basis of the address of the mobile number, a Ludhiana-based 15-year-old boy was rounded up for questioning. “The boy revealed that he is a Class IX student of the school. He wanted to have a holiday on Saturday. Hence, he, along with his other friends, had decided to send an email to the school principal and inform her about the planting of a bomb at the school which will blow up on October 5. The boy admitted to his mistake and was allowed to go home,” the ACP said.

He added that the boy and his friends were fond of gaming. They used to play a game in which bombs were planted for fun and the boy also decided to imitate the gaming fun by doing a prank with the school principal.

Sadar police station SHO inspector Harshveer Singh, said the student wanted the school to announce a holiday on Saturday and after receiving the bomb threat via email, the school authorities had announced a holiday on October 5. The boy was happy when he got to know this morning that the school had announced a holiday due to the hoax bomb threat. He also discussed the holiday announcement with his friends with whom he did the planning of sending the email.