Kolkata, February 24 Judicial work was disrupted on Tuesday as several courts in West Bengal received bomb threats, causing security personnel to be in a state of alert and prompting search operations and evacuations on the premises, officials said.
The city sessions court, the CJM (Bankshall) court, and the sub-divisional courts at Asansol and Durgapur in Paschim Bardhaman district received bomb threats via email in the morning, a senior police officer said.
However, no explosive material was found during the search operations in the courts, he added.
The city sessions court and the CJM (Bankshall) court were evacuated, and personnel from the Kolkata Police bomb squad, accompanied by sniffer dogs, checked the entire premises, the officer said.
Similar operations were carried out at other courts in the state.
Asked if the simultaneous bomb threats in the courts were linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out by judicial officers, CEO Manoj Agarwal said it was up to the state police to conduct an investigation and identify the culprits.
"I believe the police are already investigating the bomb threats, and whether it is related to any ongoing election-related activity in the courts," Agarwal said.
Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty said an investigation has been initiated to determine the source of the threat emails, and whether one individual or a group is involved.
Chakravorty, who was accompanied by DGP Piyush Pandey and Kolkata Commissioner of Police Supratim Sarkar, told reporters at the state secretariat that the West Bengal government is committed to providing security to judicial officers and others involved in the SIR process.
