A 13-year-old boy has been detained for allegedly sending a false email claiming there was a bomb on a Toronto-bound Air Canada flight from Delhi, police reported on Tuesday. The boy confessed that he did it “just for fun” to see if he could be tracked down, according to authorities.
The incident came to attention when a bomb threat email for flight AC043, scheduled from Delhi to Toronto, was received at 11:25 pm on June 4, as reported by Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani. This led to a high alert at the Delhi airport and the activation of full emergency protocols to ensure passenger safety. A thorough search of the flight confirmed the threat was a hoax.
Following a complaint from Air Canada, an FIR was filed. The police investigation revealed that the email account used to send the threat had been created and deleted within a few hours on the same day. Tracing the email led the police to Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where they discovered the sender was a 13-year-old boy.
During questioning, the boy admitted that he got the idea after watching news about a similar hoax at Mumbai Airport and wanted to test the police’s ability to trace such threats. Using his mobile phone and his mother’s Wi-Fi, he created and sent the email.
The DCP stated that the boy “was very excited when he saw the news about the hoax bomb threat at the Delhi airport the next day but did not share any information with his parents out of fear.”
The Juvenile Justice Board has taken the boy into custody, and police have seized two mobile phones used in the incident, said DCP Rangnani.