A day after a hoax bomb threat mail sent the management, students, and parents of National Hill View Public School into a tizzy, the Rajarajeshwarinagar police tracked it down to a class X student of the same school who had sent the mail from his father’s laptop to get the upcoming tests postponed.
The police said the boy had created an e-mail in the name of Kannada actor Huccha Venkat and mailed the letter on Sunday. But the boy got scared after noticing that the police had deployed the bomb disposal squad and anti-sabotage teams to comb the area. Tracking the IP address, the police zeroed in on the house and confronted the boy, who confessed to the crime.
Lakshman Nimbaragi, DCP, west-division, said the school had announced unit tests from July 21. The boy was not prepared and was scared that he would fail. He planned to get the exams postponed by sending the hoax mail.
The boy attended school on Monday and told his classmates that the tests are going to be postponed, but his friends did not take him seriously thinking that he was playing a prank, the police said.
“The boy is meritorious and is liked by the teachers and staff in the school. His parents are shocked and embarrassed. The boy thought that the school would postpone the tests and never anticipated the repercussion,” a senior police officer said.
“Considering his background and his future, we have decided to counsel him and his parents and take an undertaking from them according to the procedure to close the case,” the officer added.
Panic had gripped the school soon after the staff opened the mail on Monday and they alerted the police. The school shifted 1,500 children and staff to the adjacent school for safety and the police cordoned off the area for combing operations to check the premises before declaring it as a hoax. The school declared a day’s holiday.
