Bilaspur's court complex received a bomb threat email for the third time in under three months on Saturday, triggering an immediate security response that has by now become a grimly familiar drill for police, court staff, lawyers, and litigants alike. Bomb disposal squads swept the premises. Dog squads conducted systematic searches. Fire brigades stood by. And once again — as has been the case every single time before — nothing was found. The threat was a hoax.

But the word hoax no longer captures what is actually happening in Bilaspur. Three threats in three months, targeting the same judicial complex repeatedly, is not random mischief. It is a pattern — and it is one that law enforcement agencies across Chhattisgarh are now under serious pressure to break.

How It Started

The sequence of bomb threats targeting Chhattisgarh's courts began on January 8, when anonymous emails landed simultaneously in the official inboxes of district courts in Rajnandgaon, Durg, and Bilaspur. The language was specific and deliberately alarming — warnings of suicide attacks using RDX-based improvised explosive devices, with a stated deadline by which judges were to be evacuated from the premises. Police, bomb disposal teams, and dog squads were immediately deployed across all three locations. Comprehensive searches were conducted. Nothing was found.

Three weeks later, on January 28, the second wave arrived. Fresh bomb threat emails were sent to district courts in Rajnandgaon, Ambikapur, and Jagdalpur. The same emergency response was triggered. The same exhaustive searches were conducted. And again — nothing.

The High Court Itself Was Not Spared

If the first two rounds were alarming, the third took the situation to an entirely different level. In late February, the Chhattisgarh High Court — the apex judicial institution of the state, located in Bilaspur — received a bomb threat email at its official address at 11:50 AM. The gravity of the target was unmistakable. The entire High Court complex was immediately sealed. Barricades went up at every entry and exit point, including parking areas. A joint team comprising local police, bomb disposal squad, dog squad, fire brigade, and ambulance services conducted a thorough sweep of the entire building and its surrounding compound.

The search lasted several hours. At the end of it, the all-clear was given. No explosive device. No suspicious object. No bomb. A case was registered. Investigation was announced. No arrest followed.

The Saturday Threat — Third Strike

Saturday's threat is now the fourth distinct bomb threat incident in Chhattisgarh's courts this year — and the third specifically targeting Bilaspur. The modus operandi remains identical: an anonymous email, sent to an official court inbox, containing specific and alarming language designed to compel the maximum security response. Court authorities alert police. Premises are evacuated. Judges, lawyers, litigants, and staff stream out onto the streets. Barricades are erected. Squads move in. Hours pass. All clear.

And then, slowly, the courts attempt to resume the day's interrupted proceedings — with pending hearings pushed back, litigants sent home, and yet another working day in the judicial calendar partially destroyed.

Who Is Doing This — and Why

That is the question that hangs over every aspect of this story and to which neither police nor cyber forensics teams have yet provided a public answer. The consistency of the modus operandi — spoofed or anonymous emails, specific alarming language, official court email IDs as targets — suggests a single actor or coordinated group rather than unrelated copycat incidents.

Several possibilities are being examined. One line of investigation focuses on whether specific hearings or judgments are being deliberately targeted for delay — whether someone with a pending case or an unfavourable judgment is using bomb threats as a disruptive tool to stall proceedings. Another angle considers whether this is part of a broader campaign to erode public confidence in the safety and functioning of Chhattisgarh's judicial institutions. A third possibility — that this is being done purely for the thrill of disruption by someone aware of exactly how the system will respond — cannot be ruled out either.

What is clear is that the perpetrator understands the security protocols of the courts well enough to know that every threat, however baseless, will trigger a full and resource-intensive response. That knowledge itself is telling.

The Cost No One Is Counting

Every bomb threat response has a cost that rarely makes it into official statements. Deploying bomb disposal teams, dog squads, fire brigades, and ambulance services for multi-hour searches consumes significant police manpower and public resources. Evacuating court premises mid-session disrupts dozens — sometimes hundreds — of ongoing hearings. Litigants who have travelled from distant villages for a scheduled hearing find themselves standing outside a sealed complex with no certainty about when proceedings will resume.

Multiply that disruption across four incidents in three months — across Bilaspur, Rajnandgaon, Durg, Ambikapur, Jagdalpur — and the cumulative human and institutional cost is considerable. And beyond the numbers, there is a less quantifiable but equally serious consequence: the gradual erosion of the sense of safety and dignity that judicial premises are meant to embody.

Security Tightened, Investigation Ongoing

Senior Superintendent of Police Rajnesh Singh confirmed that a case has been registered following the most recent High Court threat and that investigation is underway. Cyber forensics teams are working to trace the origin of the emails. Court security has been enhanced with additional personnel deployment and upgraded surveillance systems at entry points.

However, in the absence of a confirmed arrest — across four separate incidents over three months — the security enhancements carry limited deterrent value against an actor who has already demonstrated a willingness to strike repeatedly and evade detection each time.

A Question of Institutional Confidence

There is a deeper dimension to this story that goes beyond the immediate security response. Courts in India are spaces where citizens go seeking justice — often at the most vulnerable and consequential moments of their lives. The repeated targeting of these spaces with bomb threats — even hoax ones — chips away at the sense of institutional security that underpins public trust in the judiciary.

If the person or persons behind these emails are not identified and held accountable, the message received — however unintentionally — is that the judiciary's official communication channels can be exploited to paralyse its functioning at will. That is a precedent that no democratic system can afford to leave unchallenged.

The investigation must deliver results. Bilaspur — and Chhattisgarh's courts — have already waited long enough.