India crime: A joint team comprising officials from the Ahmedabad Crime Branch and the cyber-crime cell laid hands on a man in West Bengal on Tuesday, who had sent scores of emails to the courts and schools of the city, threatening to blow them up. According to officials, the arrested accused was the mastermind behind the hoax emails, which prompted the evacuation of schools and courts, sending a wave of panic across the city.

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Accused named Sourav Biswas

Officials aware of the development said that the arrested accused has been identified as Sourav Biswas, a resident of West Bengal. They added that almost a month after Biswas had sent the hoax emails, the crime branch and cyber cell sleuths began a probe, and the technical trail led them to Biswas on Tuesday.

Following the arrest, Biswas was brought to Ahmedabad and was produced before a court, which remanded him to police custody.

Emails sent a wave of fear, panic across Gujarat

Notably, on February 17, 2026, as many as six district and sessions courts across Gujarat, including those in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Rajkot, Vadodara, Valsad and Mehsana received numerous bomb threat emails. The court premises were evacuated immediately, and the bomb disposal squads as well as sniffer dog units were deployed for searches, but no suspicious items were found.

Additionally, a day before this, 19 schools in Vadodara and 20 in Ahmedabad received similar emails, following which the students enrolled at all the schools were sent home and authorities carried out precautionary checks. However, no incriminating materials were found.

Accused employed sophisticated digital trail

According to police, Biswas allegedly utilised advanced techniques to evade the cops and mask his identity. He used Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the security systems. The cops said they are now interrogating him to ascertain the motive behind his move, identify his potential accomplices and to trace the technical methods used.

The police concluded by saying that the operation was carried out under the supervision of Ahmedabad Police Commissioner GS Malik and Joint Commissioner of Police (Ahmedabad Crime Branch) Sharad Singhal.