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'Spurned lover' who threatened to blow Indian court, arrested in Uttar Pradesh
Threats were sent to the official email ID of the district judge in Jaunpur. The man allegedly demanded Rs 100,000, or he would blow up the court complex
- PUBLISHED: Tue 24 Feb 2026, 1:45 PM
A young man in northern India allegedly used paid VPN services, multiple WiFi connections and nearly 50 fake email accounts to send bomb threats to a court complex in an elaborate attempt to settle a personal score after his girlfriend’s marriage was fixed elsewhere.
The accused, Vishal Ranjan, was arrested from Azamgarh district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh for threatening to blow up the court premises and police lines in Jaunpur, located about 80km from Varanasi in northern India.
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According to the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), the threats were sent on February 17 to the official email ID of the district judge in Jaunpur.
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Investigators told Khaleej Times the accused created five separate email IDs using Proton Mail and other platforms, masked his IP address using a paid VPN service, and accessed the internet through different people’s WiFi connections in an attempt to conceal his identity.
In the emails, he allegedly demanded Rs 100,000 (approximately Dh4,400) to be sent via the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, failing which he threatened to blow up the Jaunpur court complex and the police lines gate.
A case was registered under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (India’s new criminal code), the IT Act and other laws, and the ATS began tracking the digital trail.
The plan was unravelled after electronic and physical surveillance traced the activity back to him. He was arrested on February 22 in his rented room in Azamgarh.
Officers recovered five mobile phones, a laptop, two memory cards, four SIM cards and cash. Forensic examination allegedly revealed around 50 email IDs across Proton Mail, Gmail and Outlook created under different names along with about 20 Facebook accounts.
Police said a draft message threatening to blow up the Azamgarh bus depot was also found on his devices. Investigators believe that had he not been arrested, that email would have been sent as well.
According to the ATS, the motive was deeply personal.
The accused allegedly told investigators that he was in love with a woman whose marriage had recently been arranged with a man from Jaunpur. Unhappy with the match, he is said to have created fake social media profiles in the groom’s name and posted objectionable material, leading to a village-level mediation meeting known locally as a panchayat, where he had to apologise.
Police allege that the bomb threats were part of a revenge plan.
Investigators say he searched social media and found a pamphlet of a local cricket tournament in the village, which carried names and phone numbers of several young men who had attended the mediation. He then allegedly used those numbers and created fake email IDs in their names, as well as in the name of his girlfriend’s fiance to send the bomb threats, hoping that police would arrest them.
Mazhar Farooqui, or Maz, is a multiple award-winning investigative journalist and Senior Editor at Khaleej Times. Renowned for exposing corruption and uncovering major scams, he is also the author of The Maz Files: Scoops, Scams & Showdowns.
