Repeated hoax bomb threats keep Chennai police, bomb squad on their toes

It has been a tense — and somewhat absurd — fortnight for the metropolis police, arsenic pranksters person been flooding the inboxes of VIPs, celebrities, and adjacent the Director-General of Police (DGP) with weaponry menace emails.

The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) has been rushing from 1 posh code to another, playing an uninvited crippled of hide-and-seek with bombs that were ne'er there.

Frequent target

Among the galore recipients, histrion and comedian S.Ve. Shekher appears to person received the highest fig of threats. In conscionable 2 weeks, helium was sent 43 emails from fictitious senders claiming that RDX bombs had been planted astatine his Mandaveli residence. The messages triggered panic among his family, prompting the constabulary and BDDS squad — with afloat cogwheel and a sniffer canine — to behaviour repeated searches.

Laughing disconnected the bizarre experience, Mr. Shekher said: “I deliberation I clasp the grounds for receiving the astir weaponry menace mails successful the city. I don’t cognize what provoked these pranksters to people me. The mails are abusive too. On 1 day, I received 7 emails, and the constabulary were present till midnight. Now, the BDDS squad sojourn america truthful often that it has astir go portion of our family.”

Last Friday, a message sent astir 4:10 a.m. to the Tamil Nadu DGP’s bureau claimed that 5 RDX bombs had been planted astatine the Chief Minister’s residence connected Chittaranjan Road successful Teynampet. The BDDS instantly searched the premises but recovered thing suspicious. A nighttime earlier, akin mails were sent to the DGP’s authoritative message ID, claiming that explosives were placed astatine the Raj Bhavan successful Guindy, the BJP bureau successful T. Nagar, and histrion Trisha’s residence successful Teynampet.

The pranksters did not halt there. On different day, DMK MP Kanimozhi’s residence and respective different cardinal locations were targeted. The agelong database of threatened sites included auditor Gurumurthy’s location successful Mylapore, erstwhile Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan’s residence successful Raja Annamalai Puram, Narada Gana Sabha successful Alwarpet, Periyar Thidal successful Vepery, the ISKCON temple connected East Coast Road, The Hindu bureau connected Anna Salai, actor-dancer Swarnamalya’s residence, and adjacent overseas consulates successful the city.

A mates of YouTubers besides received threatening mails. One connection read: “Sorry, evacuate by 4 p.m., volition denote utilizing RFID signals!”, and different claimed, “We person dosed the IEDs with minimal powder, but the auto-fuse volition detonate wrong 24 hours — effort to flight by then!”

Police sources said the senders utilized aggregate fake email IDs targeting either the DGP’s authoritative message oregon the individuals directly. A elder serviceman of the Greater Chennai Police said: “Earlier, these miscreants utilized to nonstop specified mails to schools, creating panic among students and parents. Now, they person shifted absorption to VIPs and cardinal establishments. For the past 2 weeks, the mails person been arriving without a break.”

“We travel modular operating procedures for each threat. Once we person an email oregon call, the section constabulary and BDDS squad are deployed immediately. They hunt the premises thoroughly and, if thing is found, state it a hoax. Our archetypal probe suggests the senders usage the acheronian web, making it hard for america to hint them. We are pursuing each leads,” the serviceman said.