Patna, Aug. 22: Pradeep Kumar Malik, the district and sessions judge of Buxar, around 150km west of Patna, has received an anonymous extortion letter.

The letter that came through a regular government mail to the civil court yesterday, mentioned the name of one Soni Kumari, stating that the judge should ensure that an amount of Rs 10 lakh is delivered to her or else there would be an explosion in the court.

Police have started investigations.

"The letter has been written very shabbily and the same was forwarded to us today by the court. An FIR into this connection has been lodged at the Model police station and investigations have started. It can very well be a mischief but the police cannot take any chances and security has been beefed up at the residence of the judge as well as the civil court. The letter doesn't have any details of the sender but does have the name and complete address of whom to deliver the money to," Sunil Kumar, the sub-divisional police officer of Buxar, told The Telegraph.

Sources said the address provided in the letter was verified and found to be true. "The letter stated that the money had to be given to one Soni Kumari and her address was given. The police went to the same and found it to be true. She is a housewife and has claimed complete ignorance. Though the police too feel that she has got nothing to do with the incident, she and her family members have been questioned in detail. We are not ruling out enmity with another family over property/land. Soni's family had recently been in a quarrel with them over the same issue that they had threatened them of dire consequences within a week's time. It can very well be that the other family, in order to frame them, sent this letter. However, nothing concrete can be said at this moment and the other party will be questioned too. Until now, no one has been arrested," another officer said.

Last week, threat letters were purportedly sent from the rebel militant group Islamic State (IS) to Munger commissioner Liyan Kunga and deputy inspector-general of police (Munger) S.P. Shukla.

The police have claimed that they have identified the so-called mischief mongers involved in the act and arrests would be carried out.