Series of e-mails threaten to blow up 5 district courts, Lawrence School; turn out to be hoax

As a precautionary measure, a search operation was also conducted at the secretariat in Shimla. No explosives or suspicious items were found, a senior police officer said. The proceedings at the court complexes later resumed amid heightened security.
The first e-mail was delivered to the mailbox of District and Sessions Judge, Chamba, at 12.04 am followed by one at the e-mail id of the headmaster of The Lawrence School at 5.01 am. The other e-mails landed in the mailboxes of the District and Sessions Judges of Shimla, at 5.15 am, Kinnaur at 5.35 am, Kullu 5.36 am and Nahan in Sirmour at 5.39 am.
“All the e-mails were sent by one ‘Jayanti Karrampa’—a likely fictitious identity — claiming that RDX-based improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been planted at the court complexes and at The Lawrence School in Solan district and will go off in within five hours,” police said.
An investigation has been launched to trace the origin of the e-mails, which were reportedly sent in the name of former students of Anna University.
In Shimla, Superintendent of Police, Sanjeev Gandhi, said following the information about the threat e-mails, preventative action was taken and police teams headed by DSP-level officers evacuated the premises and carried out an in inspection.
In Sirmaur, Additional Superintendent of Police Yogesh Rolta said the officials came to know about the threat e-mail at 10 am when court staff staff switched on the computer to carry out the judicial work.

DIG (Cyber Crime), Mohit Chawla, said the police teams in the respective districts followed the standard operating procedure (SoP). “The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), was informed. Preliminary investigation suggests that all emails were sent from a single e-mail ID but at different times. The e-mail IDs targeted are publicly available. It is yet to be ascertained whether the e-mails were sent from within the country or outside,” said Chawla.

The police statement said that similar threats have been reported in other states over the past year. “Himachal Pradesh received 8 to 10 such threats in recent months. Cases have been registered in Kullu and Shimla districts, and investigations are ongoing. In a related case, Kerala Police have arrested an accused individual, and efforts are underway by Himachal Pradesh Police to obtain custody for interrogation,” it added.

Earlier, bomb threats were received at the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, the state secretariat, and at Deputy Commissioner’s offices in some districts. In the second week of June, the state police traced the origin of one of the seven threat emails received between April 16 and June 9. That e-mail had claimed that sensitive government infrastructure — including the offices of Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena, Deputy Commissioners of Mandi, Kullu, Hamirpur, and the Himachal Pradesh High Court—would be destroyed using explosives.

“Although the pattern and method of the seven e-mails were similar, one was sent using a different handle. All the e-mails were routed through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Six were traced to a European country, while one originated from within India. That particular email, received on May 2, threatened to blow up multiple government offices, including the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Kullu.

The investigating agency, with assistance from the State CID Cyber Cell, has also identified the Indian state from which the email was sent,” an officer, privy to the instigations, said.