Surat Passport Office receives bomb threat email; gets forwarded to post offices across Gujarat

Ahmedabad, Feb 27 (PTI) The Regional Passport Office at Surat on Friday received a bomb threat which turned out to be a hoax, but the e-mail was mistakenly forwarded to post offices across the state and caused panic, police said.

The Surat Passport Office received an e-mail at 5.55 am threatening that there would be an RDX blast on the premises at 12.10 pm and it should be evacuated, said Assistant Commissioner of Police V R Malhotra.

A team of Umra police station and Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad reached the spot but nothing suspicious was found, he said.

The email was originally received from an Outlook ID only at the Surat Passport Office, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Divyaprakash Gohil.

"Due to misunderstanding, the entire state's post offices received the same bomb threat e-mail which led to panic situations and security was stepped up," he said.

The Surat RPO forwarded the email to the Surat police commissioner's office with Navsari Division Post Office in the CC, he said.

As to why it was copied to the Navsari post office was not known, Gohil said.

But the mix-up did not stop there as the Navsari Division Post Office sent it to the Ahmedabad Post Office, from where it was forwarded to post offices across Gujarat including Valsad, Godhra, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and other districts, alerting local police. PTI KVM PD KRK