‘Will blow you up,’ RBI’s Mumbai headquarters receives bomb threat in Russian language

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received a threatening email in Russian language on Thursday (Dec 12), calling for ‘blowing up’ its headquarters in Mumbai. The email was sent to the official email ID of RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra. Mumbai police later filed an FIR in the case against the sender and have launched an investigation.

A Mumbai police officer later said, “A threatening email was received on the official website of the Reserve Bank of India. The email was in Russian and warned to blow up the bank. A case has been registered against an unknown accused in Mata Ramabai Marg (MRA Marg) police station. An investigation into the matter is underway”.

According to media reports, investigators are checking whether the sender used a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to send the email, which was received just days after Malhotra took charge as the 26th governor of the RBI, replacing Shaktikanta Das.

This comes after the RBI’s Mumbai customer care centre last month received a similar threat call from a man claiming to be “the CEO” of Pak-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. The matter was immediately brought to Mumbai police’s attention. Nothing suspicious was found following thorough checks and searches.

(With inputs from agencies)