5 Bengal Courts Receive Bomb Threat Amid Supreme Court-Mandated SIR Duty

Kolkata: A wave of panic swept through West Bengal's judicial circles on Tuesday as multiple district courts received bomb threats via email, just 48 hours after the Supreme Court issued an order involving judges in sensitive electoral roll verification work.

The threats targeted high-profile judicial complexes and have prompted a massive security operation across the state.

Threats Across Districts

The scare began early Tuesday morning when a threat email was sent to the Chief Judge of the Kolkata City Civil Court. 

Within hours, similar alarming communications were received by court authorities in Berhampore (Murshidabad) and Chinsurah (Hooghly). According to sources, at least five courts have been targeted across the state.

Police Marine Forces and local bomb disposal squads were immediately deployed to the affected premises. 

In Kolkata, the City Civil Court was completely evacuated as sniffer dogs and forensic teams searched the building for explosives. 

While no suspicious devices have been found as of Tuesday afternoon, the coordinated nature of the emails has put the state’s intelligence wings on high alert.

Timing Raises Questions

The timing of these threats has sparked intense speculation. It comes after a landmark directive by a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi.

Due to a trust issue between the state government and the Election Commission, the apex court recently ordered nearly 250 serving and retired judicial officers to be deployed to oversee the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. 

These judges are tasked with resolving over 50 lakh cases of logical differences in voter lists, a process that has become a political flashpoint in West Bengal.

Security Beefed Up

After the threats, the West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) has been instructed to ensure foolproof security for all judicial officers engaged in SIR duties.

The Supreme Court had already expressed concern over reports of threats and violence against SIR officials in earlier hearings.

Authorities are currently tracing the IP addresses of the threat emails, which are suspected to have originated from encrypted servers designed to mask the senders' identities.

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