District and sessions courts in Maharashtra's Pune, Thane, Hingoli, Beed and Nanded received emails threatening bomb blasts on their premises on Monday, triggering a security scare and extensive searches by the police.
No suspicious objects or explosives were found during the searches, police said.
In Thane, the court complex was evacuated in the afternoon after the court administration received an email warning that a bomb would explode at 3.30 pm.
"Personnel from Thane Nagar police station evacuated the entire court complex. Judges, advocates and other staff members were safely escorted out. A dog squad and Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) personnel subsequently conducted a thorough search," an official said.
In Pune, the Shivajinagar court premises were evacuated after the court administration received an email claiming that a bomb had been planted in the building, a Pune Police officer said.
"Following receipt of the email, the court premises were evacuated, the BDDS was summoned and a search operation was launched to look for any suspicious objects," he said.
In Hingoli, in the Marathwada region, an email threatening to blow up the court building was received after the court opened in the morning.
The court authorities immediately alerted the police, following which a team, accompanied by BDDS personnel, rushed to the premises and launched a search operation.
A police official said the email could be a hoax. The Hingoli cybercrime unit has launched an investigation to trace its source.
A similar threat was received by the Beed court, also in Marathwada, at 11.52 am. The email warned of a bomb blast at 3.11 pm, prompting the evacuation of the court complex, local officials said.
"A contingent of police, BDDS and Local Crime Branch (LCB) personnel, along with a dog squad, reached the court complex. Teams carried out a sanitisation exercise and search operation," Additional Superintendent of Police Shaikh Sameer said.
Cyber teams are examining the origin of the IP address to determine whether the threat was a hoax or part of an unannounced drill, he added.
The Nanded district and sessions court also received a bomb threat via email on Monday.
Police declared the threat a hoax after an extensive two-hour search operation yielded no explosives, an official said.
According to police, an anonymous email warning of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast was received on the district court's official email address around noon.
The court administration immediately forwarded the message to the police for urgent action. As a precautionary measure, litigants, advocates, court officers and staff members were evacuated from the premises.
Police have launched a technical investigation to identify the source and sender of the threatening email.
