Students behind bomb threat to MNNIT

THOSE RESPONSIBLE for the recent bomb threat to the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) are none other than two of  the deemed university's very own students.

The district police are questioning the duo to find out whether the threat was just some students' prank aimed at "having some fun" that led to the Deemed University and the district officials spending sleepless nights or had they more sinister intentions and contacts with some terror merchants.

Though the MNNIT and the police officials are tight-lipped about the affair, sources say that the culprits are some MTech students of the institute and they have even confessed to their crime.

MNNIT had received an envelope containing a floppy that carried a threat to blow up the institute a few days before the Republic Day.

In light of the terror attack on the Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore and an alert sounded at all premiere research and technical institutes of the country by the Union Government, the MNNIT authorities had taken the threat seriously and informed the district administration and cops besides also intimating the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The authorities in co-ordination with the cops had also tightened the security of the MNNIT campus and increased vigilance too.

Sources say that with the Republic Day passing off peacefully, suspicion of the involvement of some students in the threat gained strength and efforts began in earnest to zero in on the culprits.

The cops reportedly first traced the computer from which the threat emanated using a few computer experts and caught an MTech student believed to be an inmate of the Raman Hostel.

The student's questioning by the cops led to his not only confessing his involvement in the incident but volunteering the name of another youngster in sending the threat floppy to MNNIT.

He is said to have even confided to the cops that while he had just come up with the idea and worked on it hypothetically, it was his friend who actually sent the threat to MNNIT authorities.

While the MNNIT authorities remained tight-lipped over the incident reportedly following some instructions from the top officials to keep a lid on the whole thing "in interest of the institution", SSP (Allahabad) Vijay Singh Meena, on being contacted, reluctantly said, "We are questioning two MNNIT students believed to be involved in the incident.

It is a high-level inquiry and the investigations are still on to find out their aim, intentions and possible involvement of anyone else," he said.