Around 20 Delhi colleges, including Jesus and Mary and several DU institutions, received bomb threat emails on Wednesday, sparking panic before being declared hoaxes. Police suspect VPN use, echoing a series of similar fake threats to schools, colleges, and even the airport in recent months.
Panic gripped several parts of the capital on Wednesday after around 20 colleges, including Delhi University institutions and Jesus and Mary College in Chanakyapuri, reported receiving bomb threat emails. The threats, however, were later declared a hoax after extensive searches revealed nothing suspicious, Delhi Police officials confirmed.
“This is the first time this week that such email threats have been reported. The messages, suspected to have been sent through a VPN (Virtual Private Network), carried content like ‘high power explosives’ had been planted and ‘students deserve freedom’,” a police source said.
Local police received calls regarding the threats on Wednesday afternoon from Jesus and Mary College, Aryabhatta College and Motilal Nehru College, all located in Delhi University’s South Campus area. Teams from the Bomb Detection Team (BDT), the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), and other agencies immediately carried out checks. Officials confirmed that no explosives or suspicious items were found.
The city has seen a spate of similar incidents over the past year. Just last week, more than 100 schools across Delhi received bomb threats over email within a span of five days. Police investigations revealed that these messages were sent using VPNs, with domains traced to the UK and some European countries.
In previous cases, however, culprits were often younger individuals acting alone. Last December, police tracked down a student who sent a hoax bomb threat to his school to avoid an examination. As he had used a regular email ID without a VPN, authorities were able to trace him quickly. He was counselled and later released.
Last May, more than 200 schools in Delhi received similar hoax threats, while emails were also sent to hospitals, colleges, and even the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Many of these cases remain unsolved, particularly those routed through foreign VPN servers.
With Wednesday’s fresh round of threats, police are once again urging calm while continuing their investigations. For now, the warnings have been dismissed as hoaxes, but the pattern of repeated false alarms continues to strain security agencies and unsettle the capital’s educational institutions.