Three Bengaluru hotels receive hoax bomb threat emails

Similar bomb scare emails had been sent to schools and hospitals earlier this month

After schools, museums, the airport and hospitals, three hotels in Bengaluru received hoax bomb threat emails in the wee hours of Thursday, May 23. | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

After schools, museums, the airport and hospitals, three hotels in Bengaluru received threat emails in the wee hours of Thursday, May 23. The emails were later deemed as a hoax.

The emails, from a person who identified himself as “daudee jiwal”, claiming to be the son of a senior IPS officer, were sent to the front desks of major star hotels, threatening that bombs had been planted there. The sender claimed that his father had colluded with Pakistan-based ISI and a Tamil Nadu-based political family to execute the blast, to divert the attention from the drug scandal in which the Tamil Nadu -based political family is involved.

The caller also suggested evacuation of the hotels by 2.30 p.m. on Thursday in the mail that was sent around 2.30 a.m. The sender also asked that Bomb Detection and Disposal Squads (BDDS) be deployed, while warning that some of the BDDS staff were under the “supervision of his father”.

The police, following a complaint, carried out searches and concluded it as a hoax.

The police said that the mail was sent by some frustrated person seeking revenge. The police have stepped up probe to identify the source of the mail.

Earlier hoax threats

Similar hoax threats were received by eight schools in the city on May 14. The emails, claiming bombs were placed in the school buildings, were received at 12:20 a.m.

A day earlier, on May 13 afternoon, as many as six hospitals in and around Bengaluru received a common hoax bomb threat email, even as over 20 hospitals in the national capital New Delhi also received similar hoax emails the same day. 

The e-mails sent to the schools as well as the hospitals had identical text. 

On May 3, Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) police registered an FIR against an unknown person for sending a threat mail to bomb the airport on April 29. Geetha Rani, terminal manager, in her complaint, said the mail was sent to the airport’s feedback email ID claiming that bombs had been planted and that they would explode in a few hours. The mailer claimed to be from a terrorist group.