Members in Rajya Sabha today expressed concern over the lack of wherewithal to check cases of fake letters on bomb scare, with the Home Ministry saying it has issued an advisory to all states and UTs to get such cases professionally investigated and prosecuted.
The issue came up in the backdrop of at least two senior BJP leaders, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, having received threat letters purportedly from the Islamic State (IS) as recently as in January this year.
Replying to questions, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said such anonymous and pseudonymous letters are recieved by several departments and there were provisions under various sections of IPC to deal with such cases.
Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathaibhai Chaudhary said the Ministry has recently issued an advisory in this regard to all the state governments and Union Territory administrations to get such cases professionally investigated and prosecuted to curb such incidents.
Nominated member K T S Tulsi said despite such letters about fake bomb threats, the only method available before the post offices to identify them was through handwriting experts, which they do not have.
"How is this menace going to be countered if it is handled in such an inept manner," Tulsi said.
Tarun Vijay (BJP) wanted to know whether any foreign country was involved behind such incidents.
Chaudhary said the Centre keeps on issuing advisories in this regard with the latest being issued on February 26, while pointing out that the matter related to the states.
"There is punishment up to three years under section 505 of IPC and two years under section 507," he said.
The minister appeared in agreement with the view that the postal department could find it hard to investigate such cases with 2.96 crore letters being handled by it in a day.
