Authorities in Mumbai were placed on high alert on Thursday morning, November 12, after an email threatened bomb blasts at multiple locations across the city, including Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, the mayor's office, megastar Amitabh Bachchan's Juhu bungalow 'Jalsa' and a Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch, an official said.

Source: PTI

According to an official cited by PTI, the email was received at 10:52 am and was addressed to PNB's Mumbai Zonal Office, the Local Crime Branch at Cuffe Parade and the bank's Zaveri Bazar branch in south Mumbai. Its subject line warned of a bomb blast at a PNB branch at 1:11 pm, and the message also mentioned November 27 and December 31 along with threats to the other locations, including the Mahalaxmi area. The official said the authenticity of the threat and the identity of the sender have not yet been established.

Source: PTI via Daily Jagran

The email also made references to Khalistan and a purported organisation named 'Khalistan National Army', the official said. The claim in the email is an allegation made by its sender and has not been independently established. The CSR Journal reported that the messages were sent in the name of a person identified as Dhaval Ramesh Helaiya; police have not publicly confirmed that identification in the PTI reporting.

Pune faced a parallel scare the same afternoon. According to a report by Civic Mirror in Pune, an email received on the Pune Municipal Corporation's official address at 1:16 pm threatened an explosion at the corporation's main headquarters and the mayor's office at 3:11 pm, and also referred to Pune airport, Bachchan's residence in Mumbai and an upcoming concert by singer Diljit Dosanjh. Offices in the municipal corporation's new building were evacuated as a precaution, and local police, the fire brigade, the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) and a dog squad searched the premises.

Source: Civic Mirror via Urban Acres

In Mumbai, police and bomb squad personnel conducted inspections at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the other sites named in the email, The CSR Journal reported, adding that the bomb squad found no suspicious item at the Pune municipal premises. No explosion was reported in either city.

Source: The CSR Journal

Thursday's emails are the latest in a series targeting prominent Mumbai locations in recent weeks. An email sent to Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde on October 23 threatened blasts at her office, Bachchan's residence and the venue of Diljit Dosanjh's November 27 concert at Mahalaxmi Racecourse; a search at the mayor's office at BMC headquarters found nothing suspicious, an official had said. On November 6, another threat email named the Bombay High Court, the Bombay Stock Exchange, a racecourse and Bachchan's residence.

What happens next: investigators in both cities are working to trace the origin of the emails, and security has been stepped up at the locations named. Further official word on the searches and on any police case registered over the threats was awaited.