Heartbroken woman sends hoax bomb threats in 11 states to frame ex-crush, gets caught after one small mistake
PTC Web Desk: In a bizarre case that sounds like something straight out of a web series, a 30-year-old woman from Chennai, Rene Joshilda, created chaos across 11 states in India by sending fake bomb threats — all to take revenge on a man who didn’t return her love. Rene, a robotics engineer and former senior consultant at Deloitte, allegedly used fake email accounts to send threats in her former crush’s name. Her target, Divij Prabhakar, was someone she had met during a project in Bengaluru. Though she developed strong feelings for him, he didn’t feel the same. Divij got married in February this year, which reportedly pushed Rene to take revenge in an extreme way.
The police say Rene created multiple email IDs using different versions of Divij’s name and sent bomb threats to schools, hospitals, and even major sports venues like Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium. She even used VPNs, the Tor browser, and the dark web to hide her identity, which made it very hard for the police to track her.
The fake threats caused panic in cities across 11 states, including Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Bihar, Telangana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana. Just in Ahmedabad, she threatened to blow up 21 locations. Police forces had to rush into action each time, only to find it was a false alarm.
After the tragic Air India AI-171 crash on June 12, which killed over 270 persons in Ahmedabad, Rene allegedly sent a shocking email claiming responsibility for the crash. She linked the threat to her earlier emails and said it was proof that her group was serious. This raised even more red flags, and the police became even more determined to find the sender.
Despite all her efforts to hide, Rene made one crucial mistake. Six months ago, she accidentally logged into both her real and fake email accounts from the same device. This exposed her IP address and connected her directly to the hoax emails. That small digital footprint was enough for Ahmedabad Police’s cyber crime team to catch her.
“Even though she was very smart and used high-level technology, that one mistake gave her away,” said Joint CP (Crime) Sharad Singhal.
The police are continuing their investigation, and Rene may face serious charges for creating panic, wasting public resources, and falsely linking herself to a national tragedy.
- With inputs from agencies
