Delhi man arrested for sending flight threats via email – ThePrint –

New Delhi, Oct 26 (PTI) A 25-year-old man was arrested for allegedly posting threatening messages against a flight at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), police said on Saturday.

Shubham Upadhyay, a resident of Uttam Nagar in the national capital, was arrested for posting two bomb threats to attract attention after seeing similar news reports on television, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI) Usha Rangnani said two suspicious and potential bomb threat messages were received via email at the IGI airport on the night of October 26-29.

“Immediate action was taken and standard security protocols were followed, but the threat turned out to be a hoax,” she said.

A case was registered under Section 3(1)(d) of the Suppression of Unlawful Activities Against the Safety of Civil Aviation (SUA SCA) Act, 1982 and Section 351(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and an investigation was initiated.

During the investigation, the source of the messages was traced to an account registered with Upadhyay.

As a result of manual data collection and technical surveillance, Upadhyay was detained and interrogated. He is an unemployed 12th grader.

Rangnani said Upadhyay admitted to sending the messages after seeing similar news reports on television. He sent the messages to get attention, she added.

According to her, the case is now under further investigation.

Rangnani said in a statement: “We assure the public that all necessary safety measures have been taken and there is no cause for concern. We urge everyone to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to authorities.” The Delhi Police has registered eight separate FIRs in connection with bomb threats on over 100 domestic and international flights in the last 10 days.

The first case was reported on October 16 following a threat received through X to blow up a plane flying to Bangalore on an Akasa Air flight. The plane, which was carrying more than 180 passengers, was forced to return to the country’s capital.

The next day, police wrote to social media platform X asking for details of the accounts that posted the threatening messages, but police were unable to obtain user ID or domain details.

Amid a wave of false bomb threats against several airlines, the Ministry of Information and Technology has asked social media platforms to comply with due diligence obligations and promptly remove or block access to misinformation within strict time frames prescribed by IT rules. PTI ALK KSS KSS

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