24-06-2025
Three bomb threats in Gujarat, all ‘hoax'; probe begins
Bomb threats were received by the Gujarat High Court, the Rajkot district court as well as a school in Vadodara — all on Tuesday — keeping officers on their toes. All three locations were searched and sanitised by teams comprising policemen and other officials, and the threats turned out to be hoaxes.
The state's cyber crime units, however, have now begun a probe into the emails.
The Principal of an English-medium school inside the complex of Gujarat Refinery received an email, with the sender claiming that a bomb had been placed on the premises that would 'go off any time'. Teams comprising policemen, officials from the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad, Dog Squad, Special Operations Group and Crime Branch arrived at the spot soon after. However, even after a search spanning several hours, nothing suspicious was found.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 1, Julie Kothiya, said: 'The school received an email citing a bomb threat. It was sent by an ID of one Umar Farooq. The local police and special units vacated the premises and 375 children and 35 staff members were evacuated. The cyber crime team is investigating the matter to trace the sender.'
A couple of hours after the Vadodara school incident, another similar email was received by the Gujarat High Court — the second such email in less than a month — from one Rene Joshilda who is in the custody of the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime unit since Monday. The email sent to the Registrar General's office claimed that 'three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been placed in the court building and would explode during the day', officials of Sola Police station said. However, unlike on June 9 when the previous threat was received by the court, the HC continued proceedings instead of vacating its premises, while police officers conducted a thorough search. Nothing suspicious was found in this case either.
In Rajkot, the local police carried out a search at the District and Sessions Court premises, but the threat was termed as hoax when, in this case as well, officials did not spot any suspicious object.
