Police invoke cyber terror provisions in bomb threats case

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru police have invoked stringent cyber terrorism provisions in the case linked to last week’s bomb hoaxes in at least 15 schools across the city, commissioner Kamal Pant said on Friday.

According to the top cop, cases of hoaxes are usually charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, however, since the threats to schools had caused widespread panic and impacted the lives of people, he said they were applying cyber terrorism provisions under section 66 (F) of the Information Technology Act

“We felt that it is important that a message is conveyed that such hoax calls will have consequences,” commissioner Pant said.

At least 15 schools in Bengaluru had received a bomb threat via email on Friday last week. According to police, The email was sent multiple times to schools on the IDs available on their website. Some schools received as many as 140 emails.

The mail, seen by HT, read: “A very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, attention is not a joke, this is not a joke, a very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, immediately call the police and sappers, hundreds of lives may suffer, including yours, do not delay, now everything is only in your hands! [sic].”

Police had to evacuate the schools and conduct searches till late last Sunday.

Chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai had said that emails were part of a conspiracy is on to disturb peace in the State. “Karnataka is a progressive state and some elements are repeatedly trying to tarnish this image. Police officials instructed to consider these cases seriously,” Bommai had said.

Talking about the investigation Pant said on Friday that police have received some leads. “It wouldn’t be right to share the details at the stage of the investigation but we are making progress in the case,” he said.

The invoking of such stringent charges is likely to impact how the police handles hoaxes going forward.

Cyber terrorism charges were last imposed on 2014 in the case of Mehdi Masroor Biswas , an engineer who allegedly ran a pro-Islamic State Twitter handle.

In its charge sheet, Bengaluru police claimed that Biswas would monitor the developments of IS on the internet and TV and assist his followers, who were willing to enter the IS territory. He would tweet about vulnerable sections along the border on the basis of which volunteers entered the ISIS territory, the charge sheet added

In the past too, bomb threats have been issued by email, however, the section under the IT act was not imposed. In 2016, two students were arrested for sending hoax emails threatening to bomb Bengaluru’s international airport. The duo were booked under sections177 (false information), 505 (public mischief), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) and 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) of the IPC.