Bengaluru : Threats transmitted through a keyboard can have consequences as real as those delivered in person, the Karnataka high court has observed while refusing to quash criminal proceedings against a Delhi resident accused of sending emails threatening bomb blasts at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) and several shopping malls in Bengaluru.
Justice M Nagaprasanna, in an order passed on Sept 1, dismissed a petition filed by Abhay Shee, who challenged the case registered against him by Bengaluru Cybercrime police over emails allegedly sent in Nov 2025. His principal contention was that the internet connection to his computer had become defunct on Nov 30, 2025, the date on which the threatening emails were allegedly transmitted. Because dismissing a genuine warning could have grave consequences, they must act cautiously.
“The law cannot permit the electronic medium to become a convenient cloak behind which an individual may assume another’s identity, issue threats of catastrophic violence and then seek immunity from prosecution by disputing internet connectivity,” the judge observed. He argued with the means of electronic communication disabled, it was inherently improbable that he could have authored and sent the emails to the Bengaluru police commissioner’s office. The court noted that police cannot afford to presume that threats to public safety are hoaxes.
Shee challenged the proceedings, which are pending before a Bengaluru court, under BNS Section 351(4) and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The email identified KIA and several shopping malls as targets, with the blasts allegedly scheduled to begin at 7pm, according to the material considered by the court. The case concerns emails allegedly invoking the name of the proscribed terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed . It also demanded payment to avert the threatened attacks. Opposing the petition, the govt advocate submitted that substantial investigation had been completed and the material collected by investigators needed to be tested at trial.