A 24-year-old man from Kanpur has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for creating fake email IDs and selling them to persons based in Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries. The IDs were used to send bomb threats to schools and important establishments in Noida, Delhi-NCR, Gurugram and Mumbai.
The accused has been identified as Ankit Shankhwar, a resident of Kanpur’s Ghatampur area. A mobile phone and a laptop were recovered from him. Around five lakh email IDs were found in Excel files on the recovered laptop. An email ID, “smithjohnson6889@gmail.com”, which was allegedly used to send a bomb threat to the Mumbai mayor’s office on October 23, was also found on the laptop.
Investigation revealed that the IDs were also used to threaten bomb blasts at singer Diljit Dosanjh’s proposed show in Delhi-NCR and at the residence of a Bollywood actor.
Ankit had been creating fake email IDs since 2021. According to ATS, he used Wi-Fi and proxy networks to conceal his identity and sold these IDs through Facebook groups. His contacts with individuals and groups in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Egypt and other countries also came to light during interrogation.
The investigation revealed that the accused received payments through Binance crypto wallets.
ATS said Ankit came into contact with a Bangladeshi national identified as Alamin Islam through Facebook and WhatsApp. Islam later paid him 6,000 USD Tether (USDT), a cryptocurrency-linked digital token, for supplying fake email IDs.
The case came to light after several schools in Gautam Buddh Nagar, Delhi and Gurugram reported receiving threatening emails from a particular ID: “simenbriones9265@gmail.com”.
The threat messages purportedly invoked the names of the Khalistan National Army and Babbar Khalsa, ATS said.
Technical analysis of the said email ID indicated that it had been accessed from Kanpur, leading investigators to Ankit.
The process of producing the accused before the court and seeking police custody remand is underway.
