RBI, banks bomb threat mail: Mumbai police book three men from Gujarat including a stock trader

The Mumbai police's crime branch on Wednesday arrested three men from Vadodara in Gujarat, including a stock trader, for their involvement in a threat mail, which caused a lot of panic among people. The mail was sent to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about 11 bombs that have been planted at 11 locations in Mumbai.

As far as the probe is concerned, the police have found that the accused persons sent the threat mail just to play mischief, PTI reported, citing an official.

"The threat email was sent to the RBI here mentioning that 11 bombs were planted at different locations in the city, including the RBI's new office building, HDFC House in Churchgate, and ICICI Tower in Bandra Kurla Complex," the official said.


A first information report (FIR) was registered at Mata Ramabai Ambedkar (MRA) Marg police station in South Mumbai against an unidentified person, and the crime branch of the Mumbai police was roped in to conduct a probe, he said. Based on the technical inputs, the crime branch team apprehended Mohammed Arshil Mohammed Iqbal Topala (27) from Vadodara, he added.

The email id, that was used to send the threat mail was created by Topala, who has a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree and works in share market trading, the official told PTI.

After his interrogation, the crime branch officials apprehended Adil Bhai Rafiq Bhai Malik (23), who works at an egg shop, and Wasimraja Abdulrazzak Memon (35)—both from Vadodara, he said, adding that they were taken into custody for their suspected role in the case. They are being handed over to the MRA Marg police station for further action, he added.

According to the police, the threat mail was sent from the id khilafat.india@gmail.com on the RBI governor's email id at around 10.50 am on Tuesday. Threatening execution of blasts, the sender demanded that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and RBI governor Shaktikanta Das resign from their posts immediately and release a full statement about the disclosure of the "banking scam", the FIR said.

After receiving the threat mail, the police conducted searches at all the locations mentioned in the email with Bomb Detection and Disposal (BDDS) personnel, but nothing suspicious was found at these spots.