By Dr Swati Jindal Garg
In a sign of a dysfunctional society, acts carried out thoughtlessly are jeopardising the lives of others, especially students. In the latest episode, a hoax bomb threat was sent via e-mail to a private school in south Delhi’s Saket. This is the fourth such incident in the national capital in the last five weeks.
Following a petition which sought directions to the authorities to draw up an action plan to deal with bomb threats, the Delhi High Court asked the city government, police and private schools to respond. “At least find out how these bomb threats are happening. It never used to happen in school, no… It is very scary,” Justice Prathiba M Singh observed. The petition underlined the fact that the government did not have an action plan to deal with such incidents “which can cause havoc in anyone’s family and can have a large impact”. Justice Singh also asked the police to file a status report about the action taken.
The petitioner said it was everyone’s collective failure if schools were “under repeated and constant threats”. The petition was filed by the parent of a student who studies in DPS Mathura Road, where a bomb threat was received on April 26, 2023. This later turned out to be a hoax. The problem, however, did not end there as the school received a second bomb threat on May 11.
The petition stressed that an action plan was needed to hold regular evacuation drills and other exercises for the safety and security of children studying in schools so that they were prepared to deal with such disasters. The Delhi government also admitted that the issue was a pressing one and asked the High Court to make all schools a party to the petition. Following this, the judge impleaded an umbrella association of more than 450 private unaided schools as respondents.
The petition also sought clarifications from the city police to outline the steps taken to ensure that the recent bomb threats received over email are not repeated. It demanded that the authorities should identify the miscreants and take strict action against them and fix accountability in a time-bound manner so that there is no disturbance by those attempting to hold the system to ransom.
The rising incidents of hoax bomb threats to various schools led to nationwide alarm. The last incident of a bomb threat was reported from Amrita Vidyalayam in Saket on May 17 following an early morning message to the school’s official e-mail ID.
Earlier, on April 12, The Indian School in south Delhi’s Sadiq Nagar received a fake threat over email, forcing the police to evacuate the complex and search the premises. A week later, DPS, Mathura Road, received a phone call about a bomb threat, prompting a similar response. It was only after the entire school was evacuated that it was found that the caller was a student of the school having some fun.
Earlier, most students who made these hoax calls would get away with either a warning or at the most, a suspension in the absence of any guidelines to deal with these situations.
Expressing her shock at the frequency of the incidents, Justice Singh said that “this never used to happen earlier”. She said that it cannot be ignored that the modus might have changed, but the issue remained the same.
Till a few years back, hoax bomb threats were frequently experienced in the aviation industry where it was seen as a form of unlawful action that endangered the safety of aviation and air transportation.
In the beginning of 2023 too, security agencies were on high alert at Indira Gandhi International Airport after a bomb threat was made for a Pune-bound SpiceJet flight. Even though no passenger had boarded the flight, it took time to thoroughly check the aircraft and follow the security drill. This significantly delayed the take-off of the plane. Luckily, nothing suspicious was found on the aircraft.
Early this year, Hyderabad police received a call at 10.30 am stating that there was a bomb on an Indigo flight and it needed to be stopped immediately. This resulted in the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee assembling and inquiring about the call. However, it was revealed that a 59-year-old man who was denied boarding on the Hyderabad-Chennai flight for turning up late had allegedly resorted to the hoax call. This act of the passenger led to great discomfort to 183 passengers who were not only thoroughly checked, but their luggage was also turned topsy turvy. The police apprehended the caller and he was later let off with a notice issued to him.
Such hoax bomb threats endanger flight safety and criminal proceedings are initiated as per the law of the country where the aircraft is registered. These provisions apply to both citizens of the country and foreign nationals.
In 2019, the National Investigation Agency registered a case under the stringent Anti-Hijacking Act against a 28-year-old man who allegedly made a hoax call to Delhi airport in August to stop his wife from leaving the country for work. He claimed that she was a suicide bomber.
Some courts take stringent action against such misguided elements. A special court in Ahmedabad sentenced a man to life and fined him Rs 5 crore for creating a hijack scare aboard a Jet Airways Mumbai-Delhi flight in October 2017 under the Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016.
While many claim that these hoax calls are for fun, Seemanth Kumar Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police (law and order) reportedly said: “If the call harms a person or results in any sort of loss, then it is considered a crime and legal action will be taken.”
Alok Kumar, additional commissioner of police (crime), also reportedly said: “All prank calls cannot be considered legally offensive; it depends on the magnitude of the crime. The more severe the offence the more severe the consequences.” He also clarified that most people who make these calls are not mentally stable. He cited an incident two months ago in Bengaluru when the police received a call from somewhere on the city outskirts. The caller warned that some 20 ISIS fighters were entering Bengaluru. “We traced the call and the person was booked under IPC Section 507, which deals with criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication.”
While most hoax call cases get closed due to the culprit being untraceable, the vacuum in law in dealing with such incidents cannot be ignored. There is no special enactment under which these culprits can be booked. They can be booked for causing mischief or similar provisions where the quantum of punishment is less, but this is not sufficient deterrent.
Hoax calls arise from a problematic psychology and while such acts are carried out for fun, if left unchecked, it will lead to serious repercussions. Most of these pranksters offer no explanation for their actions or even express remorse when confronted. Psychiatrists claim that a dysfunctional family set-up and negligent parenting are the main causes of such irrational behaviour.
Whatever be the cause, it takes the police on a wild goose chase and creates public disturbance.
—The writer is an Advocate-on-Record practicing in the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court and all district courts and tribunals in Delhi