THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It arrived by email. Addressed to the Cliff House. With a bomb threat to its most important resident: the chief minister of Keralam. The message mentioned the time of the explosion, the names of the attackers, and their motive; with the closing line: “Consider this a hoax, and consider this the worst chance you’ll ever take.”
The pattern continued between 2024 and 2025, with threats to locations across Keralam and other states being received by key government officials. Now, the person alleged to be behind the more than 200 such messages is now in police custody, with investigators in different cities taking turns to question him.
It was nearly two months ago that Sarath Subrahmanian, 38, a software engineer from Tamil Nadu working in the United States, flew back to Chennai to celebrate his parents’ birthdays. However, the state’s anti-terrorism squad picked him up at the airport in connection with a case of morphing and circulating an image of the wife of former Chief Minister M K Stalin.
The subsequent investigation reportedly also revealed his role in masterminding the hoax bomb threats, and TN Police ended up alerting state forces across the country. He confessed to sending the emails during questioning, officers said. Kerala Police, who had been investigating the threats in the state, finally had their suspect. “A recurring feature of the emails is his apparent ideological opposition to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), with the party and its officials repeatedly named by Sarath of instigating the purported attacks,” said a senior cyber officer with Kerala Police.
According to officers, Sarath took pleasure in the panic triggered by his threats and the resulting media coverage. The behaviour was linked to depression over his separation from his wife several years ago.
He allegedly turned to Keralam when coverage of his threats in TN failed to attract the expected attention.
Unfamiliar with the state, he relied on internet searches and ChatGPT to identify prominent locations, police said. These included Cliff House, Lok Bhavan, the Secretariat, embassy offices and several other government offices. From Vazhakkad police station in Malappuram and Ernakulam Town police station to Punjab, police officers across the country are now collecting evidence to establish his involvement in hoax threat cases.“We were unable to trace him because he used email platforms like hotmail, which, at the time, did not require identity verification,” a Keralam officer said.
The bomb threat at the collectorate in the state capital was one of the most unusual cases linked to Sarath. “It prompted fire force personnel to rush to the site. During the search, a beehive was set off, causing bees to sting 17 people. On learning that people had been hurt, Sarath sent an apology to the-then collector from a fake email ID in the name of the sub-collector,” recalled city cyber police circle inspector Prakash R.
On October 15, state cyber police received custody of Sarath for three days before he was handed back to Chennai cops. Officers said they would seek further custody for questioning. However, Sarath’s itinerary remains packed, with him expected to be in Chennai Police’s custody this week, followed by Andhra Pradesh and later Karnataka.