Shillong, June 19: While the Meghalaya police is on high alert and have tightened the security in and around the Meghalaya High Court following an email threatening to blow up the Court complex in Shillong city, initial investigation by district police points towards the threat likely to be a hoax.
Sharing the findings from the initial probe, SP(City), East Khasi Hills, Pankaj Kumar Rasgania, on Tuesday said initial investigation suggests the threat is likely a hoax, but further investigation will follow. Refusing to divulge more details, he said appropriate action is being taken regarding the case, however, no FIR has been registered in the case yet.
“Today we were informed about an email sent to the High Court, claiming bombs were placed in certain locations within the court. The email was tagged as spam by Gmail, so we are still determining its authenticity. We are still investigating and will inform you as soon as we have more details,” he said.
When asked if this was the second such email received by the High Court, Rasgania confirmed saying, “In the previous instance, we registered an FIR and investigated, discovering that the email was generic and sent to all high courts, not just the Meghalaya High Court. The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) is handling the matter, and appropriate action is being taken by central agencies.”
Regarding the sender of the email, Rasgania said they have the technical details, but as the investigation is registered with the CID, he does not have more details.
He reiterated that no FIR has been filed in the current matter and that the police are still examining the email. “So far, we have not received any FIR. Further details will be shared once available,” he added.
When asked if the police had lodged a suo moto FIR, Rasgania replied, “Not yet; we are still examining the email. Once that process is complete, we will proceed accordingly.”
Regarding whether the bomb squad was deployed at the high court, he said, “We don’t have that information because our cybercrime investigation team is still in the process of gathering details.”
Rasgania emphasized the seriousness with which the police are treating the threat, stating, “Our security team is present at the high court, and they have conducted checks. This seems like a hoax, as we have encountered similar situations before. We have conducted our preliminary investigation, and further investigation will follow.”
