A 13-year-old boy was apprehended from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut for sending a hoax bomb threat to a Toronto-bound Air Canada flight, the police said on Tuesday, adding that the minor sent the email “for fun” after seeing news reports of bomb threats doing the rounds recently.
The incident came to light on June 4, when an email containing information of a ‘bomb threat’ was received by Indira Gandhi International Airport regarding flight AC 043, following which the airport made a PCR call to IGI police station. Police was put on high alert, and after registering a complaint, an emergency was declared at the airport, but after a thorough search of the plane, the bomb threat was found to be a hoax.
During the course of investigation, it was revealed that the email address of the threat had been created just one or two hours before the threat was sent, and was deleted shortly after. The sender was then traced to Meerut, where the 13-year-old was apprehended.
DCP (IGI) Usha Rangnani said the boy revealed that he had “got the idea” of sending a bomb threat email to a flight after he saw news of a hoax bomb call made to Mumbai airport.
“When he saw the news, he wanted to see if the police would be able to trace him if he sent an email. He also revealed that he created the email address on his mobile phone and used his mother’s phone’s Wi-Fi connection to send the email. He said he felt excited after seeing the news about the hoax bomb threat at Mumbai airport, and wanted to do the same. He didn’t tell his parents about what he did out of fear,” the DCP said.
After being apprehended, the boy was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and handed over to his parents as per the board’s order. Two mobile phones linked to the hoax threat were taken into possession, police said.
