‘Dark Net’ used to send threat mails to blow up Golden Temple: Punjab Police

Even as the Opposition parties have trained their guns on the AAP government over its failure to arrest those behind sending threatening emails to blow up Golden Temple, the Punjab Police have been facing problems to trace the digital footprints of the threatening mails as the unscrupulous elements used “Dark Net” and “Virtual Private Network” (VPN) for sending the same.

According to the police, only a US-based software company and its subsidiary firms can provide the source of the same. “We have approached the US-based firm, but it has not responded and provided any details so far,” said a senior police official privy to the investigations.

Dark net is a network within the Internet that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations and authorisation. Not only Golden Temple, many religious, historical and strategically important places in the country have received similar threats during the past several months, putting intelligence and security agencies in the country on their toes.

Three days ago, Amritsar Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji International Airport here had received threats of RDX blast, following which the Central security agency CISF and Punjab Police tightened the security there.

Similarly, the Nanakjhira Gurdwara management in Bidar in Karnataka also received a threat of RDX placement on July 18. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has received around nine threatening emails to blow up Golden Temple since July 14.

Police sources handling the case said all threatening emails had similar content as the sender repeatedly raised issues related to people of Tamil Nadu, criticising the government over there.

“We strongly believe that the emails were sent from Tamil Nadu but we have to substantiate it with technical evidence. We are waiting for a response from the US based software firm. We have also informed the central agencies,” said the sources.

The police arrested Shubham Dubey from Faridabad in Haryana following some technical probe. His laptop and mobile were seized and sent for forensic analysis.

Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, Police Commissioner, said due to the cyber and technical probe spanning other states, it is a time-consuming process.