Bhopal, May 21 (IANS): A week after nearly a dozen schools in Bhopal received a hoax bomb threat through e-mail, the state police has claimed that the threatening mails were sent through bots created by a 17-year-old boy from Tamil Nadu.

The police on Friday said, "A prima facie probe has revealed that a boy from Salem in Tamil Nadu had made bots (an independent programme on the internet) and released them to someone. However, the boy's involvement wasn't much in the case and he doesn't seem to be the accused."

"The boy had made these bots as part of some start-up for sending e-mails, which was purchased by someone from him and then sold to others. We have got the first link of emails and now we are trying to find out the real brain behind sending these e-mails," Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police, Amit Kumar said.

The boy has admitted that he sold these bots for nearly $200 to various people and got payment through various channels.

"All these angles are being probed," the police added.

As many as 11 schools in Bhopal, on May 13, received e-mails claiming they would be blown up with explosives, leaving the students and the school managements in panic for several hours.

Most of the schools that had received the threatening e-mails come under the Central Board of Secondary Education, where Class 12 students were appearing for their final exams.

"Your school has two powerful bombs, immediately call the police... This is not a joke, I repeat, this is not a joke. Hundreds of lives hang in the balance of death, act quickly as there is still time or else everything can end. Don't say that you were not warned. Now everything depends only on you," the content of threatening e-mail read .

However, after thorough checking by several police teams, the information turned out to be fake.