Bomb blast threat to RBI and other locations in Mumbai; no suspicious object found, say police
The Hindu
A threat mail sent to the Reserve Bank about 11 bomb blasts in Mumbai sent police into a tizzy, but no suspicious object was found at these locations
A threat mail sent to the Reserve Bank in Mumbai about 11 bomb blasts in Mumbai on December 26 sent police into a tizzy, but no suspicious object was found at these locations, including the RBI central office building and two other banks. The e-mail was sent from the id khilafat.india@gmail.com on the RBI governor's email id at around 10:50 a.m. threatening bomb blasts at the RBI new Central Office building, Fort, HDFC House in Churchgate, and ICICI Bank Tower in Bandra-Kurla Complex at 1:30 p.m., a police official said.
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", as per the FIR.
"11 bombs are planted at different locations in Mumbai and explosions will take place at 1.30 pm at the RBI new Central Office building, Fort, HDFC House in Churchgate, and ICICI Bank Tower in Bandra-Kurla Complex. All the 11 bombs will blast one by one (sic)," it said.
Police conducted searches at all the locations mentioned in the e-mail with Bomb Detection and Disposal (BDDS) personnel, but nothing suspicious was found at these spots, the official said.
He said a case has been registered against an unidentified person on the complaint of the RBI head guard under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including 505-1 b (Making or circulating a false alarm or warning as to disaster or its severity or magnitude, leading to panic), 502-2 (Statements conducting public mischief) and 506- 2 (Criminal intimidation).
Further investigation is underway, the official said.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.