Delhi airport bomb scare: Police arrest 13-year-old boy for sending hoax mail

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Police in Delhi have nabbed a 13-year-old boy for reportedly sending a false bomb threat email to the Delhi airport, saying a device had been installed on a Toronto-bound Air Canada flight, authorities said on Tuesday. The child acknowledged he sent the threat "just for fun" to see whether it could be traced back to him. Following his arrest in the Delhi airport bomb scare case, he was taken before the Juvenile Justice Board, reported PTI.

Usha Rangnani, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport), talking about the Delhi airport bomb scare case, said that on June 4, a call was received regarding a bomb threat email targeting flight AC043 going for Toronto from Delhi's IGI Airport, the PTI report stated. Following routine operational procedures, the airport was placed on high alert and a full emergency was declared.

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"On June 4, a PCR call was received at 11.25 pm regarding a bomb threat e-mail for flight number AC043 scheduled from Delhi to Toronto at the IGI Airport police station. Based on the information received, the Delhi airport was put on high alert and a full emergency was declared on the premises. Guidelines and protocols as per the SOP were properly followed to ensure the safety and security of the passengers. After a thorough search of the flight, the threat e-mail was found to be a hoax," Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani said.

Following an examination, it was discovered that the email was fake, and a FIR was filed at the request of Air Canada. The authorities tracked the email's origin to Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, and identified the sender as the 13-year-old child.

During questioning, the child said that he got the idea from hearing about a similar event at Mumbai Airport. He set up an email account on his phone and sent the email from his mother's phone's Wi-Fi. Despite his excitement at the occurrence, he did not inform his parents out of fear.

The child has been detained, and the mobile phones used to send the email have been seized.

"During the investigation, it was found that the said email ID was created hours before the hoax threat was sent and it was deleted after sending the email. The sender of the email turned out to be a 13-year-old boy. During questioning, the boy told police that he got the idea of sending the hoax bomb threat email after seeing the news about a similar incident at the Mumbai Airport. He wanted to see whether or not the police would be able to trace him if he sent such an email," Rangnani said.

"He also revealed that he was very excited when he saw the news about the hoax bomb threat at the Delhi airport the next day but did not share any information with his parents out of fear," she added.

With PTI inputs