Patna, February 9 Two courts in Bihar received bomb threats via email on Monday, prompting authorities to conduct searches on their premises, in what was the second such incident in a month, officials said.
An email threatening to detonate the Patna Civil Court premises caused alarm among the administration. Police personnel who rushed to the scene to conduct searches were tight-lipped, even as judicial work was suspended for the day, putting on hold, among other things, the bail plea of Independent MP Pappu Yadav.
Security was also heightened at the Bhagalpur Civil Court following a bomb threat email received by the authorities. The entire court premises were thoroughly searched, but no suspicious object was found, officials said.
The email, which claimed that explosives had been planted in the civil court, appeared to be a hoax, a senior district police official said on condition of anonymity.
Yadav's lawyer, Shivnandan Bharti, told reporters, "We have been informed that a bomb threat has been received on the email address of the District Judge. As a result, the bail application of the MP can now only be taken up tomorrow. My client will have to spend another day in jail."
Yadav, who represents the Purnea Lok Sabha seat, was arrested on Friday night in connection with a three-decade-old forgery case lodged at the MP/MLA court.
The Congress has come out in his support, with leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleging that the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar was targeting Yadav because he had been criticizing the investigation into the death of a NEET aspirant.
Notably, similar bomb threats were received by several courts in Bihar, including this one, on January 8. The emails had turned out to be a hoax.
