Emails threatening bomb blasts ripped through courts and classrooms across India this week, forcing evacuations, halting judicial work and sending police and bomb squads racing from one address to another, only for every alert to end the same way: nothing found.
On Thursday morning, the Bombay High Court, multiple subordinate courts and two prominent banks, most of them in south Mumbai, were hit by bomb threat emails. Courtrooms were cleared, staff pushed out and security teams moved in.
“The Bombay High Court, sessions court, Mazgaon and Esplanade court in south Mumbai, two magistrate courts - one each in Bandra and Andheri, along with two prominent banks received bomb threat emails in the morning. The premises were immediately vacated at most of these places. The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) was called in, but nothing suspicious was found anywhere in the searches,” a senior police official said.
The threats shut down the country’s one of the busiest high court for over an hour. Bar associations said staff were ordered to leave to allow a search of the premises.
“All the courtrooms were thoroughly searched and the hearings began at 3 pm,” said Nitin Thakker, president of the Bombay Bar Association.
In Andheri, advocate Ali Kaashif Khan said proceedings were suddenly brought to a halt. “The magistrate suddenly started adjourning the matter in all the cases without assigning any reason,” he said.
“As we came down, all the cars were asked to move out of the court premises, and there we got to know from court police officers that a bomb squad was coming to conduct a check,” he added.
The Bandra magistrate court received the threat on its official email ID, prompting another evacuation and search.
“After being alerted about it, the police, a bomb detection squad and other security personnel rushed to the court and carried out a thorough search of the premises. However, no suspicious object was found during the inspection,” an official of the Nirmal Nagar police station said.
The scare extended to Nagpur, where an email warned of two RDX-based explosive devices inside the district and sessions court in the Civil Lines area.
District Bar Association president Roshan Bagde said the mail landed in the court’s inbox in the morning, triggering a security clampdown. BDDS teams searched the building. Again, nothing was found.
A day earlier, the same script played out in Ahmedabad. Ten private schools received emails threatening bomb blasts in the afternoon, forcing administrators to shut down the second shift and parents into panic.
“In the email sent to the schools, it was claimed that bomb blasts will be carried out in these establishments during the afternoon. As a precautionary measure, these schools declared a holiday for the afternoon shift as the morning shift was already over,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 1, Harshad Patel.
“Our teams reached the schools and conducted a thorough search. However, nothing suspicious was found. Cybercrime teams are now investigating the source of these emails and who was behind them,” Patel said.
The message reportedly fixed the time of the blasts at 1.11 pm. Schools that received the threats included Zydus School of Excellence, Maharaja Agrasen Vidhyalaya, Udgam School For Children and Zebar School For Children, sources said.
Rajasthan has not been spared either. Police searched the Rajasthan High Court and the sessions court after a threat email claimed explosives had been planted in judges’ chambers on Tuesday. Both buildings were cleared after checks found nothing.
In Gujarat and Rajasthan, officials say such threats have become familiar, with courts and schools repeatedly targeted over the past two years.