Kolkata: A bomb threat was sent to seven courts in West Bengal, including the Calcutta High Court, through e-mails, causing panic among judges and lawyers on Tuesday, police said.
Following the bomb threat, the state administration hastily called a high-level meeting in State Secretariat.
West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty, in a press conference, said: “The security in the courts is the responsibility of the state government. There is no reason to panic.”
The State Chief Secretary, on Tuesday, appealed to the general public not to listen to rumours.
At the same time, the West Bengal Cyber Crime Branch has already started an investigation to find out who is behind this threatening e-mail.
“The judges will be provided with all kinds of protection. They will be helped so that they can do the work of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) without any hindrance,” Chief Secretary Chakraborty added.
She also said, “Rumours have been spread that bombs have been planted in several courts in the state, including Asansol and Durgapur. The state government is keeping a close eye on this matter and a search is being carried out for the sender of the email.”
She assured the general public that there is no reason to panic unnecessarily over such baseless rumours.
West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) Piyush Pandey, who was also present at the press conference, said, “We are fully prepared to handle such a situation.”
Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar was present at the press conference as well.
He said that the police’s Cyber Cell is active in finding out from where these emails were sent, adding: “We are investigating the entire matter. We are taking the whole incident very seriously. Initial investigation shows that these emails are completely fake. The pattern of emails sent in each place is similar.”
He also said that the district judges will continue to work normally, the state government will take the responsibility of ensuring their security.
The administration is fully committed to that, he added.
On Tuesday, at 11:30 a.m., an e-mail was received by Asansol District Judge Debaprasad Nath.
The e-mail claimed that the bomb kept in the court premises and the judge’s chamber would be detonated by 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
The e-mail, written in Bengali, also made several objectionable and serious demands.
It is known that not only Asansol, but also Calcutta High Court, Alipore Court, Durgapur Court, Berhampur Court, Suri Court, Hooghly District Court and Rampurhat Court have been sent threatening e-mails with the same message.
As soon as the news of bomb threat spread, there was a huge commotion in the court premises.
All judicial work was immediately suspended for security reasons.
Immediately after receiving the threatening e-mail, every court premises were ordered to be vacated immediately.
In the case of Asansol, Sandeep Karra, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate, and a large police force reached the spot on receiving the news.
The entire court premises were surrounded and the entry of the general public was completely prohibited, following which the bomb squad and dog squad were brought in and a search began.
Starting from the judge’s chamber, the security guards searched the courtroom and the adjacent areas.
However, even after a long search, no suspicious object or explosive was recovered from any of the court premises.
The situation is currently under control, according to police sources.
The state administration was shaken by the threat of such a bomb in an important place like a court.
An emergency meeting was held at the State Secretariat on Tuesday to review the situation.
Since the content of all the threatening emails is almost the same, the initial assumption of the police is that it was done intentionally to spread panic.
At present, with the increase in cybercrime, the investigators are also investigating this incident from that perspective.
Cyber Cell officials have started working in full swing to find out from which IP address these emails were sent and what is their technical source.
As of now, police security has been increased in every court premises and strict surveillance is being carried out on suspicious movements.
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