Kolkata, 11 March (H.S.) : Police investigations into the recent series of bomb threat emails sent to courts, post offices and passport offices across West Bengal have revealed that the perpetrators used foreign servers and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to conceal their identities.

Investigating officers of the state police said on Wednesday that the digital trail of the threat emails has been traced to servers located outside India. The alleged mastermind behind the threats is still at large and efforts are underway to track down those involved.

Last week, a series of bomb threat emails triggered panic in several parts of the state, particularly in Kolkata. Threat messages were sent on different days to courts, post offices and passport offices. The latest such incident was reported last Tuesday at the Regent Park Post Office in the Golf Green area of south Kolkata.

Following the threat, police along with a bomb disposal squad rushed to the spot. The premises were evacuated and searched for several hours, but no suspicious object was found. However, investigators have not ruled out the possibility of further such attempts.

Earlier, judges of several courts in Kolkata and other districts had also received similar threat emails. The matter is currently being jointly investigated by the West Bengal Police and the Special Task Force of Kolkata Police.

Police officials said similar hoax bomb threats have been reported in different parts of the country in recent months, and investigators from multiple states are sharing information to identify those behind such incidents. Acting on a lead, the Gujarat Police recently arrested a youth and brought him to West Bengal in connection with the case.

Officials clarified that the arrested youth did not send the threat emails himself, but his email ID was allegedly used in the operation.

Investigators also said that email IDs used in cybercrimes are often bought and sold online, sometimes without the knowledge of the original owners, indicating the possible involvement of an organised racket. The arrested youth is also suspected to have links to such activities.

The probe has further confirmed that VPN services were used to mask the actual location of the senders.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh