Bombay HC, local courts and banks in Mumbai, Nagpur get bomb threat mails, turn out to be hoax

Mumbai, Dec 18 (PTI) The Bombay High Court, some local courts along with two prominent banks, most of them located in south Mumbai, received bomb threats on emails on Thursday, but they turned out to be hoaxes as nothing suspicious was found during searches at these institutions, an official said.

A court in Nagpur received a similar bomb threat mail, which also turned out to be fake.

"The Bombay High Court, sessions court, Mazgaon and Esplanade court in south Mumbai, two magistrate courts - one each in Bandra and Andheri, along with two prominent banks received bomb threat emails in the morning. The premises were immediately vacated at most of these places. The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) was called in, but nothing suspicious was found anywhere in the searches," a senior police official said.

A statement issued by the two bar associations of the Bombay HC said that owing to security concerns, the staff members of the high court were immediately asked to move out of the premises for a search operation.

"Due to the threat and the search operation, the regular court proceedings were disrupted for about an hour. All the courtrooms were thoroughly searched and the hearings began at 3 pm," said Nitin Thakker, president of the Bombay Bar Association.

Speaking about the incident in Andheri, advocate Ali Kaashif Khan said that he had come for a hearing at the metropolitan magistrate's court.

"But the magistrate suddenly started adjourning the matter in all the cases without assigning any reason," he said.

"As we came down, all the cars were asked to move out of the court premises, and there we got to know from court police officers that a bomb squad was coming to conduct a check," he added.

The Bandra magistrate court received the bomb threat mail on its official email ID in the morning, a police official said.

"After being alerted about it, the police, a bomb detection squad and other security personnel rushed to the court and carried out a thorough search of the premises. However, no suspicious object was found during the inspection," the official of the Nirmal Nagar police station said.

The Nagpur District and Sessions Court received an email claiming bombs inside the building, prompting the police to launch a search of the premises.

District Bar Association president Roshan Bagde said the email was sent on the court's email ID in the morning, claiming that two RDX-based explosive devices would soon go off in the building, located in the Civil Lines area.

Security was then stepped up at the district court, and BDDS personnel inspected the premises. However, nothing suspicious was found during the search, a police official said. PTI AVI DC ZA CLS NR NP