Parents of pupils behind Amritsar school bomb scare held

Amritsar, September 13

A day after a hoax message was circulated, claiming to bomb a prominent private school here, the police have booked parents of two Class X students for cyber terrorism, criminal intimidation through anonymous communication and other relevant sections of the IPC. They have been identified as Rohit Marwaha and Davinder Singh.

The police said the parents’ SIM cards had been used to create fake ID and send the message, which was later circulated on social media.

Police Commissioner Arun Pal Singh said the police got a tip-off that a screenshot was being circulated on social media threatening to bomb a school on September 16. The message created panic among people. Police teams were rushed immediately to Spring Dale Senior School on the Fatehgarh Churian road here for a probe to ascertain the source of the message.

Though there was no technical lead, police officials worked hard to ascertain the origin of the message, said the Police Commissioner. During the investigation, it was found that two Class X students of the school had circulated the message.

Their exams were going on and their motive was to get the same cancelled to get leave on that day. “We have booked Rohit Marwaha and Davinder Singh as their SIMs were used in the crime that led to panic among people. The two students study in the same school. Rohit and Davinder were arrested,” he said.

A case was registered under Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66-F (punishment for cyber terrorism) of the Information Technology Act.

The Police Commissioner also offered help to schools who want to sensitise their students to cybercrime.