Delhi Police on Saturday said they had apprehended a 16-year-old Class 11 student for allegedly sending a hoax bomb threat to her own school in central Delhi to get classes cancelled and secure a four-day weekend.
The student allegedly wanted the private school to close on Friday so the break would extend through Monday, a public holiday for Valmiki Jayanti, police said.
Threat Email Traced To Student
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Anant Mittal said the school received an email on Friday with the subject line “Bombs Placed in Your Building”.
The district cyber police station launched a technical investigation in view of the recent series of threats to schools. A team led by station house officer Hansraj Swamin identified the sender as a student of the school, Mittal said.
Nothing suspicious was found, and the threat was declared a hoax, two officers familiar with the investigation said on condition of anonymity.
Free VPN Allegedly Exposed Device Details
Investigators said the student used her mother’s mobile phone and a free virtual private network (VPN) to send the email.
One officer said the VPN failed under heavy load, exposing the phone’s actual IP address and location.
“We collected information about the device and the IP address from the concerned service providers, examined it and finally traced the suspect,” the officer said.
This was only the second instance in which police had traced the sender of a school bomb hoax in Delhi since waves of such emails began in 2024. In the earlier case too, a student was identified after using a free VPN, according to police.
