A 14-year-old boy who was apprehended for allegedly sending hoax bomb threat emails to four private schools of Noida on Wednesday morning, allegedly because he wanted to skip school, told police that he got the idea from the recent bomb threat incidents in Delhi, said senior officers on Thursday, adding that the teenager extensively searched the content online before drafting the mails.
Police said the minor is a student of Class 9 in one of the schools that received the threat email.
On Wednesday, around 6.45am, police were alerted that four private schools — Step by Step, The Heritage, Gyanshree, and Mayoor School — had received bomb threat emails. After a thorough search of schools’ premises by firefighters, bomb detection teams, and dog squads, these mails were declared hoaxes.
“We tracked the boy using electronic surveillance after his internet dongle was found to be used in the crime. During questioning, the boy revealed that he used a trial virtual private network (VPN) service to send the hoax mails,” said Ram Badan Singh, deputy commissioner of police, Noida.
“As his exams are scheduled to start next week, he was planning to skip school. Recently, he came across news of hoax bomb threat mails being sent to Delhi schools.”
On January 8, 2025, seven private schools in Delhi received bomb threats for the seventh consecutive time, which were later declared to be hoaxes by the police. All the cases were transferred to the Delhi Police Special Cell, and two days later on January 10, a 17-year-old boy, a student of Class 12, was detained for his alleged involvement in sending the bomb threat emails.
Police said the Noida teen did some research online and decided to adopt the same modus operandi as in the Delhi cases. “He searched a long content of threat on the internet and copied it to sent mails to all schools,” said DCP Singh, adding that initially he planned to send the mail only to his school, but to avoid suspicion, he sent the mail to three others schools as well.
Police said the boy requested his parents to allow him to skip school in the past as well. But they directed him to focus on his studies, and he found an alternative way to skip school. “As the boy used a trial of a VPN, a few details related to the IP address leaked, and cyber police managed to track him,” said an investigator, asking not to be named.
The minor was booked under sections of the IT Act at the Sector 126 police station, said DCP Singh.
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