Lucknow: The UP ATS has linked a series of bomb hoax emails sent to prominent establishments in Mumbai on Nov 12 to email accounts allegedly created by Kanpur-based Ankit Shankhwar, who was arrested last month for operating a fake email ID racket.ATS officials said Shankhwar had created email accounts and sold them to a Bangladeshi national identified as Amin. These accounts were used to send threatening emails to locations in Mumbai. The ATS has claimed that Shankhwar received $50,000 (approximately Rs 47.12 lakh) from Turkey and Egypt in connection with the supply of these email accounts.The targets named in the emails included the BMC headquarters, Mumbai mayor’s office, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan’s bungalow, ‘Jalsa’ in Juhu.Other locations mentioned in the emails included Mahalaxmi Stadium and several branches of several nationalised banks.The threats triggered security concerns, prompting local police and security agencies to intensify security arrangements. The latest disclosure has brought the Nov 12 Mumbai bomb-threat episode into wider investigation against Shankhwar.The UP ATS is also examining Shankhwar’s involvement in the recent bomb-threat emails concerning singer Diljit Dosanjh’s concert in MP and a court complex in Gwalior.According to the agency, its investigation began after intelligence inputs indicated that a suspicious email ID, simenbriones9265@gmail.com, was used to send threatening emails to schools in Gautam Budh Nagar, Delhi and Gurugram. The messages threatened blasts at schools in Noida and other cities, a proposed Delhi-NCR show by Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh and the residence of a prominent Bollywood actor. The threats were issued in the name of the Khalistan National Army and Babbar Khalsa. Technical analysis of the email account revealed that it had been accessed from Kanpur Nagar, leading investigators to Shankhwar, the ATS said.The ATS said investigators also recovered another email ID, smithjohnson6889@gmail.com, from his devices. This account was used to send a bomb threat to the Mumbai mayor’s office on Oct 23.
