Police reported that on Tuesday afternoon, a bomb threat prompted by emails led to the evacuation and search of at least six district courts in West Bengal, including two in Kolkata.
Sniffer dogs and bomb disposal squad personnel were sent to the City Civil and Sessions Court and the Bankshall Court in central Kolkata after an e-mail received by a court office claimed that bombs were planted inside the premises. The search yielded no result.
Comparable events occurred at the Chinsurah court in Hooghly district, as well as the Asansol and Durgapur courts in West Burdwan district, and the Berhampore court in Murshidabad district.
All the events occurred at the same time, just hours after the Supreme Court announced on Tuesday morning that judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand could be assigned, alongside the 250 active and retired judicial officers from Bengal's district courts, to address approximately six million contested claims submitted by voters during the current special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.
Manoj Agarwal, the chief electoral officer of West Bengal, stated that the state needs to ensure the safety and security of the judicial officers assigned to the SIR exercise.
During the ongoing search operations, a press conference was conducted at Nabanna, the state secretariat, by State Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty, Director General of Police Peeyush Pandey, and Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar.
We are looking into the origin of the emails. The pattern remains consistent. All district judges are operating within their jurisdictions. The state government is actively engaged in ensuring their safety and security to prevent any disruption to the SIR exercise, according to the chief secretary.
Supratim Sarkar mentioned that their cyber crime unit is working to track down the origin of the email, and they will take decisive measures once the sender is discovered. Debaprasad Nath, the district judge of West Burdwan, stated at the Durgapur court that he instructed the authorities to clear the premises for safety reasons.
The judge informed the media that it is probably a hoax email. He instructed the evacuation of the court as a precautionary step to expedite the search operation.
By 2 pm, authorities had not discovered any explosive devices at any of the five courts. Nonetheless, security measures were heightened at various other courts due to the alarm caused by the incidents.