The Delhi Police has arrested a mentally challenged person from Uttar Pradesh for sending hoax bomb threat emails to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and an Air India flight, said officials on Friday.
The suspect has been identified as 36-year-old Nishant Tyagi, who is a resident of Ghaziabad.
Tyagi was tracked down using technical analysis and digital evidence, the police said. Upon questioning him, the investigators found that Tyagi studied through open schooling. He enrolled for graduation in 2010 but never completed his studies.
They found that Tyagi has been suffering from a mental illness for several years and has been undergoing treatment. An electronic device was seized by the police and is being examined; however, no suspicious material or explosives were recovered from his possession, the investigators said.
The hoax bomb threat
On June 29, were sent via email to the NIA, ISRO, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), and an Air India flight from New Delhi to New York.
The emails triggered a security alert, forcing agencies to launch searches and a thorough inspection. However, the emails turned out to be a hoax.
How was Tyagi tracked down and caught?
Following the threats, a special team of police was constituted under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Arshdeep Singh Panwar and Sub-Inspector (SI) Subhash. The team launched a technical investigation, examining the two Gmail accounts used to send the threats. It found that the Gmail accounts were linked to a mobile number.
Using this information, the team arrived at the Sanyog Nagar Bank Colony in Ghaziabad on June 30 and took Tyagi into its custody. The team found that Tyagi has been suffering from a mental illness since 2008. It is now trying to find out the motive behind the threatening emails and will take further action accordingly.
“During further inquiry, it was found that the individual was mentally ill. The electronic device used to commit the offence has been seized, and further investigation is in progress,” the police said in a statement.