The Ahmedabad city crime branch and cyber crime unit have arrested a man from West Bengal in connection with a series of hoax bomb threat emails sent to schools and courts in Gujarat over the past few months, police said on Tuesday.

The accused, identified as Sourav Biswas, was detained in West Bengal and brought to Gujarat, where he is currently in police remand, according to a police release.

Investigators said Biswas allegedly sent multiple bomb threat emails that triggered evacuations and security checks at educational institutions and judicial courts across the state. All the threats were later confirmed to be hoaxes.

Police said the suspect used technical methods, including a virtual private network (VPN), to conceal his identity while sending the emails. Investigators are questioning him to determine the motive, possible accomplices and the methods used to bypass security systems.

The operation was carried out under the supervision of Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G S Malik and Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Sharad Singhal.

The threats had caused concern among authorities in recent months. On February 16, bomb threat emails were sent to 34 schools in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, prompting evacuations and searches that found nothing suspicious.

The following day, six courts in Gujarat received similar emails, leading to security checks that also yielded no threats.

Earlier, around a dozen schools in Ahmedabad received bomb threat emails on January 22, while 10 private schools received similar threats on December 25. All incidents were later declared hoaxes after police searches.

Also Read: Karnataka: Private schools hike fees by 15%, cite ongoing war as a reason