Multiple courts, CRPF schools receive bomb threats; all declared hoax: Cops

New Delhi: Multiple courts in Delhi — Saket, Dwarka and Patiala House — along with two CRPF-run schools, received bomb threats on Tuesday morning, prompting large-scale security checks across the national capital, officials said.

Police said an email sent in the name of a terror module claimed that explosives had been planted on court premises early morning.

Several teams of bomb disposal squad, dog squad, and officers from the local police station were deployed to sweep the district court complexes.

“So far, nothing suspicious was found during the checks,” said a police source, adding that the email from which the message was received is under surveillance to determine its origin.

Around the same time, an unidentified man called the Police Control Room (PCR), claiming that bombs had been placed inside CRPF schools in Prashant Vihar and Dwarka and he needed help from police. The threat triggered a similar response in this case, too, and teams were dispatched to the locations and schools were evacuated.

“We thoroughly inspected the schools, and nothing suspicious was found. The threat was declared a hoax,” a Delhi Fire Services official said.

There was an annual function scheduled in the evening at the Prashant Vihar school.

A police officer said the caller’s phone was switched off soon after the threat call and no one was found at his address. Efforts are underway to trace him. Earlier, Dhir Singh Kasana, former secretary of the Saket Court Bar Association, said that court proceedings had stopped for about two hours but resumed after lunch.

Navneet Panwar, vice president of the New Delhi Bar Association in Patiala House courts, too, confirmed that following the bomb threat, a sanitisation exercise was conducted, and proceedings were halted for a small period.

“The court proceedings are on. There was only a brief halt,” Panwar said.

Meanwhile, Jasir Bilal Wani, NIA’s second arrest in the Red Fort bomb blast probe, was produced in Patiala House courts amid tight security.

The hoax calls come in the wake of the Red Fort blast.

On November 10, a car carrying an improvised explosive device exploded near the historical monument, claiming 15 lives.