Fresh bomb threat disrupts Raj HC ahead of CJI visit; turns out to be hoax again

Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court's Jaipur bench was evacuated Friday after receiving a bomb threat email warning of explosives within the court complex. This incident coincided with Chief Justice Surya Kant's scheduled visit for a national conference on cyber security.The email, which was received early Friday morning, demanded the cancellation of the CJI's evening programme and ordered the evacuation of the high court premises by noon, claiming that RDX explosives had been planted inside the complex. In response, police, bomb disposal squads, and canine units quickly mobilised to conduct thorough security sweeps of the building.
The timing of this threat appears to be particularly targeted, as it specifically mentioned the CJI's programme in the city. Nonetheless, CJI Surya Kant reached Jaipur by flight at 5pm, as planned, to inaugurate the seminar on cyber security at the Rajasthan International Centre here. Despite significant delays of nearly 30 minutes in court proceedings in the morning due to the heightened security measures, authorities confirmed that no suspicious items were found in the search. "No suspicious object was found during checking. It was a hoax," said a senior police officer involved in the operation.Police said this was the 10th bomb threat received since Oct 31 last year, all of which were found to be hoaxes. Earlier threats to the Jaipur bench were reported on Oct 31, Dec 5, 8, 9, 10 and 11 last year, and again on Feb 6, 17 and 19. Officials said a couple of similar threats were also received at the high court's principal seat in Jodhpur.Police officials are continuing their efforts to trace the sender of the bomb threat emails. They noted that the task is complicated as such messages are often sent using VPN services that obscure the sender's IP address. An officer said, "We are taking proper legal procedures and seeking data from service providers to identify the culprit."