Satna/Barwani, March 20 Police evacuated district courts in Satna, Maihar, and Barwani in Madhya Pradesh, and carried out a thorough search following email threats to detonate multiple "poisonous gas bombs" on Friday, but found no suspicious objects, officials said.
Courts in these three districts and some others received emails claiming that "poisonous gas bombs" had been planted on their premises and would explode in the afternoon. However, all of these were found to be hoaxes, they said.
Emails received by the courts in Satna and Barwani warned of 15 poisonous gas bombs each exploding in their premises, but the message sent to the Maihar court did not specify the number.
Principal District and Sessions Judge of Barwani, Mahendra Kumar Jain, told reporters, "We received an email in Tamil stating that 15 poisonous gas bombs had been placed in the court premises and would explode. We immediately informed the police."
Superintendent of Police Padmavilochan Shukla said that acting on this information, the police force and bomb disposal squad evacuated the court premises and thoroughly searched them, but no suspicious objects were found.
The SP said that the police's cyber cell is investigating from where the fake email threatening bomb blasts was sent, and appropriate legal action will be taken after the investigation.
Similar bomb threat emails were also received by the district courts of Satna and Maihar in the morning, said another official.
The emails claimed that poisonous gas bombs have been planted in the court premises and judge's offices, which will explode at 1 pm, he said.
The district and sessions judges of the two districts immediately took cognizance of the matter and informed the collector and the SP, leading to a thorough search of the premises by bomb squad and security personnel, but nothing suspicious was found, the official stated.
Furthermore, email threats were also received to blow up all district courts, including those at Maihar, Nagaud, and Amarpatan, he said.
City Superintendent of Police (CSP) Devendra Singh Chauhan said that the Satna district court received an email in Tamil, threatening to blow up the court with 15 poisonous gas cylinders.
Similar threats were also reported from neighboring districts like Rewa, Maihar, and Jabalpur, but police did not find any explosive devices during the searches.
Cases have been registered in the matter, and further investigations are underway, the official said.
Officials said that over the past few months, fake emails threatening to bomb airports, bank branches, hospitals, and schools have been received in various parts of the state.