NEW DELHI
The messages contained threatening references to several locations and public infrastructure in Delhi, including schools, metro and train services, courts and police stations. The content also contained references to Khalistan and political figures. “We have traced the IP addresses used to send the emails to a common VPN service provider, which is operating in France. The incident is indicative of the difficulties faced by investigators in tracing people bomb threats targeting schools across the Capital. Investigators have now sought assistance from authorities there to obtain further details that could help establish the identity of the sender. “We found that the sender was always found on two IP addresses. They were traced to the same VPN service.
A senior police officer said that a case was registered at Chanakyapuri police station in September based on an email received by the school on September 15 from a Gmail account. Police said the school received at least 40 threats in the past year. The senior police officer said that after a case was registered on charges of criminal intimidation under Section 351 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), among other sections.
Delhi Police are seeking help from French authorities under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to ascertain the identity of the senders of multiple bomb threat emails this year, targeting Sanskriti School, after police traced two internet protocol (IP) addresses masked by a virtual private network (VPN) operating in France, officers aware of the investigation said. Since the service is based overseas, we have initiated the process of seeking information through the MLAT route,” the senior police officer, asking not to be named, said. The VPN service provider was traced to France,” the officer said.
The MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) route is a formal legal mechanism through which one country asks another country for assistance in a criminal investigation. The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) is the nodal agency and central authority for criminal-investigation-related MLAT requests.
