Hoax Bomb Threats Rattle Bengaluru: Are Our Institutions Prepared for Real Emergencies?
Bengaluru, April 22, 2025 — Two educational institutions in Bengaluru were gripped by fear and confusion after receiving bomb threat emails on Monday night, prompting a swift police response early Tuesday morning. Thankfully, the threats turned out to be hoaxes — but they’ve reignited concerns over campus security and the increasing trend of email-based terror threats in the city.
According to police reports, the RV College of Engineering and the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath were both evacuated after receiving threatening emails warning of imminent bomb blasts. The emails, sent by an individual identifying as Rajput Sindaar from the address sindaarrajput@gmail.com, were timed closely — arriving at 9:13 PM and 9:31 PM on April 21. One message read ominously, “Save your students and principal life from bomb blast.”
Campus staff at both institutions discovered the threats during routine email checks on Tuesday morning and immediately alerted authorities. Bomb disposal units and sniffer dogs were dispatched, and both campuses were thoroughly searched. No explosive devices or suspicious objects were found, confirming that the threats were false alarms.
“We received the call around 11 AM,” said a senior officer involved in the investigation. “Searches were conducted, and nothing suspicious was found. These were hoax threats. We have registered separate cases and an investigation is underway.”
The incident mirrors another recent scare that took place in February at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), where a bomb threat email warned of drone strikes on incoming flights to Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kerala airports. That message, sent from mahanteshs6699@proton.me, demanded attention to a letter addressed to former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Borrimai. Though also confirmed as a hoax, it triggered heightened security measures during the high-profile Aero India 2025 event.
These repeated hoaxes have raised critical questions: Are educational and transportation hubs equipped to handle genuine threats? How easy is it to disrupt normalcy with a few keystrokes? And most importantly, what preventive mechanisms are in place to identify and trace such cyber miscreants?
While law enforcement acted swiftly and effectively in both cases, the psychological toll on students, staff, and commuters cannot be ignored. The rise of digital intimidation tactics signals a shift in how threats are executed — low-risk for the sender, but high-anxiety for recipients.
Authorities are currently tracing the origins of these emails and are expected to bolster cybercrime monitoring in the wake of these incidents. In the meantime, institutions across the city may need to revisit their emergency protocols, not just to deal with threats — but also to combat the fear and chaos they unleash.
Have we become too reliant on digital systems without the tools to defend them? Only time — and continued vigilance — will tell.
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