The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad has linked email accounts allegedly created by arrested accused Ankit Shankhwar to bomb-threat messages sent to several prominent Mumbai establishments on November 12, prompting security checks and heightened vigilance across the city.
The locations named in the emails included the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters, the Mumbai Mayor’s office, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and actor Amitabh Bachchan’s residence, Jalsa, in Juhu, according to the UP ATS. Mahalaxmi Stadium and branches of Punjab National Bank at Zaveri Bazar, Marine Lines, Fort, Goregaon East, Sakinaka, Nariman Point and Bandra-Kurla Complex were also listed as targets.
Branches of the Central Bank of India and Canara Bank were among the other establishments mentioned in the threatening communications. The messages triggered checks by local police and security agencies at the identified sites, along with intensified security arrangements, the agency said.
Shankhwar, 24, was arrested by the UP ATS on October 28 in an intelligence-led investigation into a network allegedly involved in creating and supplying fake email accounts. The agency has claimed that he created the accounts and sold them to a Bangladeshi national identified as Amin, who subsequently used them to send threatening emails to high-profile locations in Mumbai.
According to the ATS, Shankhwar received $50,000, approximately Rs 47.12 lakh, from sources in countries including Turkey and Egypt for supplying the accounts. The agency is examining whether the same network was involved in recent bomb-threat emails concerning singer Diljit Dosanjh’s proposed concert in Madhya Pradesh and a court complex in Gwalior. Those messages had also led to security checks and increased vigilance.
The investigation began after intelligence inputs indicated that the email account simenbriones9265@gmail.com was being used to send threats to schools in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Delhi and Gurugram. The messages also referred to alleged threats against schools in Noida and other cities, a proposed Delhi-NCR concert by Dosanjh and the residence of a prominent Bollywood actor. The threats were issued in the names of the Khalistan National Army and Babbar Khalsa, the ATS said.
Technical analysis showed that the account had been accessed from Kanpur Nagar, leading investigators to Shankhwar, according to the agency. The ATS said he told investigators that he had been creating fake email accounts since 2021 and selling them to people operating from foreign countries. He allegedly used Wi-Fi connections and proxy networks to create accounts under fictitious identities and received payments in cryptocurrency.
Investigators also recovered the email account smithjohnson6889@gmail.com from Shankhwar’s devices, the ATS said. The account was allegedly used to send a bomb threat to the Mumbai Mayor’s Office on October 23. The agency’s investigation into the Mumbai messages and the wider email network is continuing.
