THE MUMBAI police crime branch arrested three persons from Vadodra in connection with the case where Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday received an email in which the sender threatened to plant 11 bombs in 11 places. The accused had threatened that the bombs will go off agt 1.30pm if Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Dad did not tender their resignations. An officer from Mumbai crime branch said that the main accused Mohammad Arsheel Tupala (27), who has done his Bacherlors in Business Administration (BBA) and works in the share market was the one whose mobile was used to create the e-mail ID from which the threat mail was sent. Apart from him, his brother-in-law Waseem Memon (35) , who owns a paan beedi shop and his friend Adil Malik (23), who owns an egg shop have been arrested. An officer said that it was Malik who provided a SIM card using fake documents to Memon who then handed it over to Tupala. " During prima facie investigation, the accused said that they were just sent the e-mail as a mischief and there were no ulterior motives involved. We will be questioning them further," the officer said. The accused were being brought to the city and were to be handed over to the local MRA Marg police station where an FIR had been registered on Tuesday. Soon after the e-mail had been received, the police had checked the three places where the sender claimed to have planted explosives, but no bomb was found and no threat could be identified.In the email, the sender had demanded the resignation of Police are now trying to trace the sender of the e-mail. On Tuesday morning, RBI received an e-mail alleging that bombs had been placed at 11 locations including the RBI office, HDFC bank and ICICI bank. The sender said that the bombs would go off in the afternoon unless Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das tender their resignations. The sender also claimed that RBI along with some private banks had "executed the biggest scam in the history of India", an officer said. It further alleged that "the scam involved Das, Sitharaman, other banking officials and renowned ministers." In the email, the sender demanded that the two resign, and issue a "press statement with full disclosure of the scam". The e-mail further sought that the government punish them and the others "involved in the scam". The email said that the 11 bombs planted in 11 places would go off around 1.30 pm, Tuesday. After RBI received the mail, they alerted Mumbai Police following which the bomb squad and other units carried out a sweep of these spots. After nothing suspicious was found at these places, the email was classified as a hoax following which the local MRA Marg police station has registered an FIR against the unidentified sender. An officer said the accused had sent the e-mail using ID khilafat.india@gmail.com. The past year has seen a rise in the number of hoax calls and e-mails that Mumbai Police have received.
