Bomb hoax causes panic at two hotels in Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram: Bomb threat incidents are creating security concerns in the city. On Saturday, two major hotels in the city received bomb threats, creating panic among the authorities and public for hours.

This is the ninth hoax bomb threat scare in the city so far this year. On Friday, the court complex received such a threat and on Monday, the regional transport office officials received a threat mail. On March 18, a bomb threat message was received at the collectorate.

The latest threats were received at Gokulam Grand Hotel in Akkulam and Hilton Hotel at Palayam. The threats were sent to the official email addresses of the hotels, stating that there would be blasts at 12 noon. Bomb squads and police were alerted and a search was conducted after evacuating everyone to safer zones. However, nothing suspicious was found and necessary instructions were given to the hotel authorities to check all guests and vehicles for at least a couple of weeks ahead.

City cyber police began a probe after registering a case under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Section 351 (1) (b) for criminal intimidation, sections of the Kerala Police Act 118 (b) for knowingly spreading rumours or giving false alarms to mislead police, fire brigade, or any other essential service and 120 (o) for causing nuisance or violating public order. The case was also registered under sections 43 and 66 of the Information Technology Act 2000.

"The probe is focusing on the email addresses from which the hoax threats were sent. Requests were made to share the details of the account holders with the concerned officials. We are checking the links between all the hoax threats and the motives behind them. From preliminary findings, the anonymous accused operate from outside the country," said the probe team.