The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (UP ATS) has asked Google to block more than 20 lakh Gmail accounts that the agency says were found on the laptop of a Kanpur man arrested over hoax bomb threats, the Indian Express reported early on Saturday, November 14.

The accused, Ankit Shankhwar, 24, of Ghatampur in Kanpur Nagar district, was arrested by the ATS on October 28. When he was first arrested, investigators said his seized laptop and phone contained Excel files listing around five lakh email IDs, along with cryptocurrency wallet details. The agency now says the total number of IDs created or sold through his network reached more than 20 lakh, with Hindi reporting putting the sold figure at about 22 lakh; the figures are the agency's allegations and have not been tested in court.

Source: The Indian Express via NewsPlainly

According to the ATS, Shankhwar had been creating fake email accounts in bulk under made-up identities since 2021 and selling them to buyers abroad, including in Pakistan and Bangladesh, in exchange for cryptocurrency, supplying passwords and recovery details along with the accounts. A senior ATS officer told the Indian Express that the agency sent an online request with a covering letter to Gmail's office in California, attaching the list of accounts, so they cannot be used again. Google's response was not part of the reports.

Source: TezzBuzz

The agency alleges that accounts from the network were behind hoax bomb-threat emails sent to Mumbai targets on November 12, naming the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters, the Mumbai Mayor's office, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and actor Amitabh Bachchan's bungalow Jalsa in Juhu, the Times of India reported. An earlier account found on the accused's devices had been used on October 23 to send a bomb threat to the Mumbai Mayor's office, according to the ATS.

Investigators are also examining whether accounts from the same network sent the threatening emails received by government institutions and schools in Ayodhya and Varanasi on November 4, which warned of targeting religious places in Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura, and whether the network was behind hoax threats about a Diljit Dosanjh concert in Madhya Pradesh and a court complex in Gwalior, the reports said. These links remain suspicions under investigation, not established findings.

The case began after the ATS received intelligence on October 12 about threat emails to schools in Noida, Delhi and Gurugram sent in the names of the Khalistan National Army and Babbar Khalsa. The ATS says it plans to seek Shankhwar's police custody remand again, citing fresh evidence from his phone and laptop. No response from the accused or his lawyer was carried in the reports read.