Department ups vigil over suspicious mail

Pune: The department of posts has asked its staff to remain vigilant about suspicious letters after two educational institutes in the city received threat letters accompanied by detonators over the last few days.

The department of posts has told its staff to be more alert and remain vigilant about suspicious mails after two back-to-back incidents wherein the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Pune university's department of communication and journalism at Ranade Institute received threat letters accompanied by a detonator in last few days.

The letters, sent to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Savitribai Phule Pune University's department of communication and journalism at Ranade Institute, warned both institutions not to invite student leader Kanhaiya Kumar to their campus.

Staff members of the postal department are expected to alert higher authorities if they notice any mail that looks suspicious.

Senior officials said that although the staff cannot open mails, there is a general instruction to remain more alert while handling the post.

A suspicious mail can be of any nature, such as a letter without a proper address of the sender, without postal stamps, or mail packed in an envelope in specific colour, among others. Senior officials will now pay more attention to such letters.

Officials in the department however said it is a difficult task to keep track of every letter received and dispatched from post offices. At present, the department asks for an identify proof of a sender in case of parcel booking or registered post. However, there is no such provision for ordinary mail. Anyone can drop a letter in a post-box. The letter is collected from the box and sent ahead for dispatching. As of now, there is no provision to scan the letters before dispatch.

"Over a lakh letters are handled everyday across various post offices in Pune alone. The department is expected to collect or dispatch a post at a given address. The quantum is so huge that it is very tough to check each letter. Even so, in case of a parcel, it is mandatory for a sender to seal a post in the presence of the postal staff," an official said.

The department has gone a step ahead while dealing with speed post as well as registered post as maximum details of the sender and receiver now get saved in a system and the documents can also be tracked. An ordinary post is treated as a special case only if there is a damage to a document. Installation of scanners will require a huge investment in addition to changes in existing rules and guidelines, the officials point out.

Meanwhile, postal officials said on Tuesday that they were cooperating with the police in the investigations in the letters and detonators sent to the two institutes. Preliminary observations by the police department has revealed that the letters were sent through ordinary post. The contents of the envelopes were similar a live detonator, some yellow powder and a letter.

Source: timesofindia