Surat/Vadodara: The Regional Passport Office at Surat on Friday received a bomb threat which later turned out to be a hoax, but the e-mail was mistakenly forwarded to post offices across the state, triggering.The Surat passport office received an e-mail at 5.55am threatening that there would be an RDX blast on the premises at 12.10pm and it should be evacuated, said assistant commissioner of police (ACP) V R Malhotra.A team of Umra police station and Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad reached the spot but nothing suspicious was found, he said.The email was originally received from an Outlook ID only at the Surat RPO, said deputy superintendent of police Divyaprakash Gohil.“Due to misunderstanding, the entire state’s post offices received the same bomb threat e-mail which led to panic situations and security was stepped up,” he said.The Surat RPO forwarded the email to the Surat police commissioner’s office with Navsari Division Post Office in the CC, he said. As to why it was copied to the Navsari post office was not known, Gohil said.But the mix-up did not stop there as the Navsari Division Post Office sent it to the Ahmedabad Post Office, from where it was forwarded to post offices across Gujarat including Valsad, Godhra, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and other districts, alerting local police. Police in Godhra taluka were put on high alert and the police conducted a thorough search at the Jahurpura post office but found nothing suspicious.Police said similar threat emails were also received in Dahod and Rajpipla. Subsequently, search operations were conducted at post offices and passport offices in both towns. However, no suspicious objects were found at any of the locations.According to police, the mail was sent to 81 govt and private organisations across the country.
