Bomb threat at Delhi High Court, judges, lawyers vacate premises

Judges, attorneys, litigants, and staff were evacuated from the Delhi High Court as a precaution after receiving a bomb threat on Friday, which prompted high-alert procedures.

Delhi Police officials said that the email threatening to evacuate the court premises by 2:00 pm claimed that three bombs had been hidden there. However, the precise locations of the explosives were not mentioned in the message. The location was cordoned off for a comprehensive search, and a Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad was sent out right away. The email, which was allegedly written from an account using the name Kanimozhi Thevidiya, claimed that someone had gotten in touch with Pakistan’s ISI to plot to replicate the 1998 Patna explosions and included illogical political allusions.

It said, “The basic funda is secular parties depend on allowing family dynasty politics and corruption to thrive in-order to fight BJP/RSS. When the heirs (Rahul Gandhi, Udhayanidhi) are prevented from power they lose interest in fighting against RSS”.

The mail claimed that “Thus, to create a new evolution of Secular leader, the bottlenecks of the equation the heir apparent will be eliminated, so that the pseudo-secularists will leave and only dedicated secularists will come to party power.”

The message further proposed that “Dr. Ezhilan Naganathan take over the DMK”, and threatened that “Inbanidhi Udhayanidhi, son of Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin”, would be attacked with acid this week. The email ominously said, “The assets within the Police have been sown since 2017, for this Holy Friday. As a sample, today’s blast in your Delhi High Court will clear the doubt of previous bluffs. Judge Chamber will detonate shortly after Mid-day Islamic Prayers”.

It also claimed that “a smart and dynamic young Shia Muslim, Dr. Shah Faesal, has successfully made links with Pakistan’s ISI cells in Coimbatore to recreate the 1998 blasts today in Patna.”  Even a contact name and phone number, allegedly for defusing codes and accessing IED device locations, were included in the correspondence.

In recent months, a number of similar hoax threats have targeted institutions in the National Capital Region, including the incident. Authorities are looking into where the email came from.