The Amritsar police have arrested a man allegedly linked to the nationwide series of hoax bomb threat emails sent to schools and other sensitive establishments across the country over the past several months.
This is the first arrest made in connection with the threatening email racket that had triggered panic in several states. Police believe the arrest could help unravel the larger interstate and cross-border cyber network involved in spreading fear through anonymous digital platforms.
The arrested accused has been identified as Sourav Biswas alias Michael (30), a graphic designer residing in West Bengal. Police said he originally hailed from Bangladesh and had allegedly entered India illegally several years ago.
According to the police, Biswas was part of a digital ecosystem involved in procuring and selling email accounts that were later used to circulate bomb threats anonymously. Investigators said the accused operated through Facebook groups and encrypted online platforms to buy and sell email credentials.
Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the accused has been named in four FIRs registered earlier this year under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) related to criminal conspiracy, cyber offences and criminal intimidation.
Sharing details of the modus operandi, Bhullar said around 300 Gmail accounts had been procured from unidentified persons and subsequently resold by the accused. Of these, nearly 219 Gmail accounts were allegedly sold to a Bangladesh-based individual through WhatsApp, with payments routed through USDT cryptocurrency transactions.
“The probe further revealed that several of these accounts were later supplied to Pakistan-based unidentified persons allegedly involved in sending bomb threat emails and carrying out other unlawful cyber activities,” Bhullar said.
Police said the motive behind the threatening emails was to create panic, disrupt public peace and pose a threat to national security.
The investigation conducted by the Cyber Crime Police Station in Amritsar involved extensive digital tracking and technical analysis that eventually led investigators to Biswas.
Officials said the Punjab Police have sought assistance from Interpol to trace the accused’s alleged accomplices operating from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The accused has also been nominated by Gujarat Police in a similar case involving threatening emails.
During the operation, police recovered three CPUs, five computer hard disks, three mobile phones, an internet router, more than 300 Gmail IDs along with passwords and recovery details, besides 15 Hotmail accounts.
Police officials said investigations are now focused on identifying the wider cross-border network involved in the creation and misuse of anonymous digital accounts for unlawful activities.
Significantly, several private and government schools again received threatening emails on Thursday, prompting heightened security checks and precautionary measures by local police authorities.
