Bomb threat to Delhi coaching institute foiled; extortion caller held

A threat to blow up a coaching institute in northwest Delhi was foiled with the arrest of a 31-year-old man who allegedly demanded Rs 21 lakh and posed as a gangster, police said.

According to the police, the investigating teams travelled nearly 2,800 kilometres to nab the accused from Maharashtra’s Nashik.

Police said the accused, identified as Bachchu Jha, a former Applied Mathematics professor, had threatened the institute’s manager over the phone on April 2, warning of a bomb blast if the money was not paid.

“The call triggered panic and led to the registration of a case at Ashok Vihar police station. The caller introduced himself as “Babla Gujjar from Noida” and attempted to extort money by creating fear among staff and students,” a senior police officer said. The officer further said that the threat was taken with utmost seriousness, considering the potential risk to public safety.

A dedicated team was formed immediately, and a multi-layered, technology-driven investigation was launched. Technical surveillance was activated, and call detail records along with subscriber analysis were examined in real time.

The suspect’s digital footprint was tracked continuously, leading investigators to his location in Nashik.

“Continuous coordination with local units and ground intelligence helped the team zero in on the accused before he could flee. Jha, a resident of Madhubani in Bihar, was apprehended from Nashik. During interrogation, it emerged that he is educated and had previously worked as a professor of Applied Mathematics in medical colleges in Haryana and Bihar,” the officer said.

Preliminary investigation revealed that he had adopted a modus operandi of making threat-based extortion calls using fake identities. Police said he is also linked to similar cases, including one targeting a former MLA in Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and another involving an advocate of the Patna High Court in Bihar’s Darbhanga.

He was earlier involved in an attempt to murder case registered in Patna in 2016. A mobile phone used in making the extortion call was recovered from his possession. Police said incriminating chats, screenshots and other digital evidence stored in the device have established his involvement in the offence.

“The phone has been seized, and further analysis of digital data is underway to identify possible additional victims and links to other cases. Further investigation is in progress,” the officer said.