‘Bomb Threat Lady’ arrested: Bengaluru Police nab techie behind fake alerts across 11 states

A Chennai-based software engineer, Rene Joshilda, has been arrested for sending hoax bomb threat emails to schools and institutions across multiple states, including Karnataka and Gujarat, in a revenge plot against her former lover.

In a shocking revelation, the Bengaluru Police have arrested Rene Joshilda, a software engineer from Chennai, accused of sending multiple fake bomb threat emails to schools, hospitals, and institutions across 11 Indian states.

The accused was earlier detained by the Gujarat Police in Chennai for sending similar hoax mails to several locations in Gujarat. She was later brought to Bengaluru on a body warrant for her alleged role in sending threatening emails to city schools and colleges.

According to police sources, Joshilda, who worked as a senior consultant at Deloitte, created panic by sending bomb threat emails not only in Karnataka and Gujarat but also in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana.

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Her motive, police revealed, stemmed from personal revenge. Rene had fallen in love with a colleague named Prabhakar, who rejected her proposal and got married in February this year. Enraged, she created a fake email ID using his name and began sending bomb threat emails to frame him in criminal cases.

Investigators discovered that Rene used VPN services and the “Gate Code” app to generate virtual mobile numbers. Through these, she managed six to seven WhatsApp accounts to stay anonymous and spread false messages.

One of her hoax emails reached a school under the Kalasipalya Police Station limits on June 14, triggering panic and leading to an FIR. The case was later transferred to the North Division Cyber Crime Police Station by Bengaluru Police Commissioner B. Dayananda, who instructed a deeper probe into the interstate cyber trail.

Police say Rene was a robotics engineer by qualification, but she misused her technical knowledge for malicious purposes. During interrogation, she admitted to sending bomb threat mails to 21 locations in Gujarat and six in Bengaluru.

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Investigators also uncovered shocking details of her claims, in one email, she wrote to the Ahmedabad Police and hospitals saying:

“We crashed the Air India plane with former CM Vijay Rupani. Now you know we are not playing.”

Police confirmed this too was a fabricated message sent after a fake claim of a plane crash between Ahmedabad and London.

Currently, Bengaluru Police are interrogating Rene regarding all local bomb threat cases linked to her. She now faces multiple criminal charges across Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and other states.