13-Year-Old’s ‘Just For Fun’ Bomb Threat Email Puts Delhi Airport On High Alert

A 13-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly sending an email to the Delhi Airport falsely claiming that a bomb had been planted in the Dubai-bound flight, police said on Sunday. 

The incident occurred on Monday when a complaint was registered regarding a bomb threat on a Dubai-bound flight on June 18. 

The boy had sent the mail "just for fun" after being influenced by the news of another teenager who made a hoax bomb threat call a few days ago, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani was quoted by PTI as saying.

DCP said, “The airport was put on high alert, and an emergency was declared.”

Based on the complaint, an FIR was lodged, and an investigation was launched. All the guidelines, protocols and SOPs were followed to ensure the safety and security of the passengers, DCP said.

According to police, the boy, a Class 9 student, used a mobile phone provided for schoolwork to send the email and then deleted the email account. The boy said he feared telling his parents about the incident. The phone linked to the email was seized by police, and the boy was later released to his parents' custody.

Hoax Bomb Threats On The Rise

In recent times, there has been a surge in hoax bomb threats to airports and hospitals across the country. On Tuesday, 41 airports, including those in Jaipur, Chennai, and Varanasi, received bomb threats over emails, leading to extensive anti-sabotage checks that lasted for hours. However, all the threats were found to be hoaxes.

On Saturday morning, an Air Arabia flight scheduled to leave for Sharjah from the Calicut International airport was grounded after receiving a hoax bomb threat.

Last week, around 60 hospitals across Mumbai also received hoax emails about bombs kept in their premises. Mumbai police said this included both private and public hospitals, and all emails were sent using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to the hospital's public mail-id's.