Bomb blast threat to RBI: Mumbai police apprehend three men from Gujarat

The Mumbai police's crime branch on Wednesday apprehended three men from Vadodara in Gujarat in connection with a threat mail to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about bomb blasts at multiple locations here, an official said. During the probe conducted so far, the police found that the accused persons sent the threat mail to play mischief, he said.

"The threat email was sent to the RBI here mentioning that 11 bombs were planted at different locations in the city, including the RBI's new office building, HDFC House in Churchgate, and ICICI Tower in Bandra Kurla Complex," the official said. A first information report (FIR) was registered at Mata Ramabai Ambedkar (MRA) Marg police Station in South Mumbai against an unidentified person, and the crime branch of the Mumbai police was roped to conduct a probe, he said.

Based on the technical inputs, the crime branch team apprehended Mohammed Arshil Mohammed Iqbal Topala (27) from Vadodara, he said. Topala had created the email id to send the threat mail to the central bank, the official said, adding that he has a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree and works in share market trading.

After his interrogation, the crime branch officials apprehended Adil Bhai Rafiq Bhai Malik (23), who works at an egg shop, and Wasimraja Abdulrazzak Memon (35) - both from Vadodara, he said, adding the they were taken into custody for their suspected role in the case.

They are being handed over to the MRA Marg police station for further action, he said. According to the police, the threat mail was sent from the id khilafat.india@gmail.com on the RBI governor's email id at around 10.50 am on Tuesday.

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", the FIR said.

After receiving the threat mail, the police conducted searches at all the locations mentioned in the email with Bomb Detection and Disposal (BDDS) personnel, but nothing suspicious was found at these spots.