The Mumbai police on Wednesay said that the threat mails received by the Taj Mahal Hotel in the city and Fisherman’s Cove — owned by Taj Group — on the outskirts of Chennai, were not genuine. The police said that they had already carried out investigation into the matter.

“We have conducted investigations. The IP (Internet Protocol) address from which the mails were sent has been traced to a location at Rawalpindi in Pakistan by the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell. The security has been beefed up and all possible measures are being taken to avert any untoward incident. We believe it is not a serious threat,” said a top police official.

According to the officer, the nature of the e-mails was an indication that they were not of serious nature.

“They were very brief e-mails with a few sentences stating something to the effect of — Beware, you will be bombed. Nothing more was mentioned in the e-mails,” said the officer.

According to sources, the e-mails were sent from the e-mail address, sania_shfq@yahoo.com, which was created in 2006.

Representatives of Taj Mahal Hotel confirmed that the Mumbai Police had informed them that the e-mails were hoaxes, but added that they had adequate security measures in place.

When contacted, a spokesperson for the hotel, said, “The mails are considered hoaxes by the police. However, we often review our security and constantly in touch with all relevant security authorities to maintain appropriate levels of readiness. We are maintaining a position of high security preparedness.”