Mumbai/Nagpur: Threat emails warning of bomb explosions were received by the Bombay high court, several local courts, and banks across Mumbai and Nagpur on Thursday morning, causing panic and paralysing legal proceedings. Police and the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squads (BDDS) conducted extensive sweeps at all the locations, before declaring the threats as hoax as no explosives were found.As per police’s preliminary probe, the emails that warned of “RDX blasts at 2 pm” were sent from a single IP address. Police are trying to trace the source of the emails and identify the sender.“The Bombay high court, sessions court, and magistrate courts at Mazgaon, Esplanade, Bandra and Andheri, along with two prominent banks received bomb threat emails in the morning. The premises were immediately vacated…BDDS was called in, but nothing suspicious was found in the searches,” a senior police officer said. “In the probe conducted so far, it was found that the bomb threats were issued by creating a fake email address. All emails were sent from the same account, in which the sender claimed that there would be RDX blasts at 2 pm.” President of the Bombay Bar Association Nitin Thakker told reporters that all courtrooms were thoroughly searched, and hearings finally resumed at 3pm.A non-cognisable offence (case) was later registered at the Azad Maidan police station in connection with the hoax bomb threat emails under Section 353 (1) (b) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) that deals with circulation of false information or rumour.Outside Mumbai, the Nagpur district and sessions court and Akola collectorate also received similar threat emails. The email received on the official ID of the Nagpur principal district and sessions judge around 10pm claimed that “4 RDX IEDs” were planted on the premises, specifically targeting judges’ chambers, with a warning to evacuate everyone by 2pm. The message also mentioned a detainee, Mustafa Ali Syed, an alleged representative of Pakistan’s ISI, and demanded renaming a road in a southern state. A few days ago, a similar email triggered panic at the high court in Nagpur and another one at a shrine during the recently concluded winter assembly session.Sources said that similar threat emails were sent to institutions elsewhere in the state, including Kolhapur and Ahilyanagar courts.
