Kolkata: An interstate probe might be the way ahead for both Kolkata Police STF and the Bengal Police as they grapple with the 3rd successive day of fake bomb scares. The pattern is there for all to see — each day a different set of institutions is targeted, and the threats are a mix of veiled warnings as well as setting a specific time by which these institutions are to be "vacated" for anti-sabotage checks.
Sources in KP STF claim multiple other state sources saw this cycle of hoax calls. They were not always successful in detecting the perpetrators, whether it was Delhi or Punjab in the north or Tamil Nadu in the south. "We are taking help of central agencies, too. However, we are looking at some quick help from the tech giants," said an officer, even as early indications suggest that Thursday's emails might have originated down south.
The city cyber and STF police teams probing the 6-odd hoax bomb threats in the city last year at educational institutes and museums said they got a major breakthrough, as a tech giant team promised to update its privacy statement and service agreement, enabling the firm to share crucial information to support the probe.
Police sources said when they attempt to fix the origin of a threat, they are not led to a desktop in Delhi, but to a server in a jurisdiction like Panama or the Seychelles, or in central Europe. Using VPN chains — routing a connection through multiple encrypted tunnels — the perpetrator ensures that the IP address visible to Kolkata Police is a dummy.
After the KP STF took over the probe, investigators traced the servers used in several of these emails to 2 Asian and 2 Central European nations, though even these can be masked. A senior officer added that the KP unit, in association with state police, is working with central agencies and seeking international cooperation to identify the perpetrators.