Email bomb hoax disrupts collectorate functioning

Rajkot: The office of the Rajkot district collector received a bomb threat by email on Friday, which caused a disturbance among employees and forced police to evacuate the premises. Nothing suspicious was found on checking and the threat proved to be a hoax.

The collector, Prabhav Joshi, said, "It seems the email originated in Tamil Nadu. Police are investigating all angles."

According to sources in the collectorate, the email said that Pakistan's ISI had planned to neutralize E K Palaniswamy, a Tamil Nadu political figure, and his security protocol had been leaked. The email suggested an attack was planned in Gujarat as a smokescreen to divert media attention and an RDX-based IED had been planted. It told the authorities to evacuate the premises before 3pm.

As police were told about the email, they initiated a search at the collectorate. Sanjaysinh Jadeja, inspector of the special operations group, said, "A team of 45 people, including 20 police personnel of the city's quick response team, bomb disposal squad and dog squad, rushed to the collector office. We evacuated the office and searched for two hours but found nothing suspicious."

The collectorate began functioning as normal after the search.