PROCEEDINGS in the Bombay High Court took place as usual onFridaydespite an emailwarningofanimpendingbombexplosion on the premises, which was received early in the morning at the court’s official address. The threat was later declared a hoax by the police. Thiswas thesecondsuchhoax bomb threat message received by the High Court in a week, the police said.

 

The threat mail received on Friday came a day after a bench headed by Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad heard an appeal seeking reversal of the acquittal of all seven people,includingformerBJPMP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. OnFriday,soonafter the threat email landed in the HC’s official mail inbox, an office employee alertedsenioradministrativeofficials.

 

The information was immediately passed on to the Mumbai Police, who pressed their Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) and dog squad into service.Amassivecombingoperation was launched to cover the entire campusinSouthMumbai to look for possible explosives, but the search by the BDDS personnel did not find anything objectionable, said a Mumbai Police official. Apart from the courtrooms, thebombsquadalsoscanned the parking lot for judges’ vehicles and thewaitingarea forlitigants, the police said.