Bomb hoax at Delhi and Bombay HCs: Cops see a pattern, suspect role of repeat offender behind threats

People gather outside the Delhi High Court after it received a bomb threat through e-mail on Friday. A similar email was received by the Bombay High Court as well. (PTI)

An elusive threat mail sender who has been evading the Mumbai Police for months in over 12 similar cases could be behind the threat mails sent to the Bombay and Delhi High Courts earlier on Friday.

The threats sent to the high courts earlier today sparked chaos and even forced most judges to rise abruptly before noon. Both courts had to be evacuated following the threats, and searches were initiated on the premises by the bomb detection unit.

While the contents of the email sent to the Bombay High Court have not been revealed, the one sent to the official ID of the Delhi High Court at around 8.40 am said that the judges' chamber will detonate after "midday prayers" and also named some political leaders from South Indian states.

An officer of the Mumbai Police said that the threat mails to both high courts could be the job of the same individual, reports The Indian Express, adding that the suspect has been sending threat emails in Mumbai and surrounding areas for the past few months, all of which have turned out to be hoaxes.

The officer further pointed to a pattern being seen in all mails suspected to have been sent by the same individual. "The threat mail is always sent from an Outlook ID. It mentions some conspiracy theories regarding some South Indian politicians, actors, and bureaucrats, which is the case this time as well," the officer told IE.

The accused person has also made a mention of either RDX or an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in his previous mails, which was the case in the email sent to the Delhi High Court as well.

The threats sent by the suspect include an email to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in July, a five-star hotel based in South Mumbai, emails sent to schools in the western suburbs and to the Palghar district collector’s office.

The letter, signed by "Comrade Pinari Vijayan", sent to the BSE said that RDX had been placed inside a building. A similar threat was issued to the South Mumbai hotel as well.

As per the officer cited in the report, the police have been unable to track down the person so far as the suspect has used the dark web to create an email ID and used a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to send these emails in all past instances.