GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat Police have arrested two men in Bihar and Jharkhand in connection with an inter-state network allegedly involved in sending bomb-threat emails to government offices and other institutions, officials said on Monday.
The investigation began after a threatening email was received on September 10 by the official email account of Gujarat's Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Department. The message threatened to blow up the Gujarat Chief Minister's office, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and countries that supported India during the recent BRICS Summit.
The Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) said its technical investigation traced the email's digital trail to Bhagalpur in Bihar. Police subsequently arrested Roshan Kumar Rajendra Kumar Bhumihar from the district. During questioning, he allegedly told investigators that the email account used to send the threat had been provided to him by Gulshan Kumar Kaushal Singh of Deoghar, Jharkhand. Singh was later arrested in a coordinated operation involving technical surveillance and field teams. Investigators also recovered a database containing 5,13,847 unique email IDs and passwords. Police suspect the credentials were intended to facilitate further threatening emails, cyber crimes and other illegal activities. The accounts were allegedly created to target government offices, schools, colleges and courts.
The investigation has reportedly uncovered links to Bangladesh. Police said the accused were allegedly receiving financial support from individuals based there and that the database of email credentials had been shared with co-accused persons in Bangladesh. Investigators also found that cryptocurrency wallets were allegedly being used for financial transactions.
According to the CCoE, the accused used sophisticated techniques to create email accounts and bypass authentication procedures. Authorities are now examining the large database to determine how it was intended to be used and whether it is connected to other threats or cybercrimes.
The arrests followed a coordinated operation involving the CCoE and police teams from Gandhinagar, Bhagalpur and Deoghar.
Police have advised the public not to panic if they receive threatening emails. Recipients should immediately inform local police or contact the 1930 cybercrime helpline. Authorities have also urged people not to delete, forward or circulate threatening messages, screenshots or unverified information on social media, and not to contact the sender.
The investigation into the alleged network and its wider activities is continuing. (IANS)
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