The police on Friday carried out a search of the regional passport office in Ranchi a day after it received an email threatening to blow up its premises. However, nothing suspicious was found during the search.
The passport office, which operates out of a shopping mall in Ratu Road, is the third govt premise in the city to receive a bomb threat mail. Similar emails were sent to Ranchi civil court and the district collectorate building last month.
Police said the mail was received at passport office on Thursday following which officials informed the police headquarters about it. The director general’s control room on Friday sent instructions to all districts where passport office centres are located including Ranchi, Dhanbad, Dumka, Deoghar, Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Hazaribag, Medininagar for the checking drive.
A police team led by Kotwali DSP Prakash Soy reached the premises with the bomb detection and disposal squad and a sniffer dog to conduct an anti-sabotage check of the Galaxia Mall. The team searched the parking area, old cars, materials, and the passport office. A similar exercise was conducted at the passport office in Namkum in Ranchi.
City SP Paras Rana said, “Nothing suspicious was found during the search operation. Even if the mails were the act of miscreants, police are taking no chances. Police are investigating instances of similar messages received by other public establishments.”
Earlier this year, Ranchi civil court and district collectorate received similar bomb threat emails which turned out to be hoax
