The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had asked Google to block at least 20 lakh email accounts which were used to send bomb threats to schools, courts and several government establishments in the country. A Kanpur-based youth, identified as Ankit Shankhawar, allegedly created and sold the email accounts to send the threats. The UP ATS arrested the 24-year-old man on October 28 from Ghatampur. Shankhwar allegedly supplied fake email accounts to a suspicious individual in return for 6,000 USDT in cryptocurrency.
The UP ATS sought the blocking of these email accounts to prevent further misuse of the emails. The crackdown comes as the investigating agency had begun scrutinising a larger pool of suspicious email accounts to identify those used for issuing threats. According to the officials, more accounts are being vetted, and further action will follow. The probe has unveiled the alleged scale of his operation, which involved creating fake email accounts using proxy servers and other anonymity tools and selling them to buyers who could use them to hide their identities or locations.
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How The Arrest Revealed A Bigger Racket
The probe agency, during the investigation, found the involvement of a Bangladeshi national, Mohammed Amin, who was in contact with Ankit Shankhwar and had been using fake email IDs supplied by him. The UP ATS is also analysing the nature of their association, the number of email accounts provided to Amin and whether these accounts were subsequently used to send bomb threats to schools, courts and other important establishments.
The ATS had initially zeroed in on Shankhwar after intelligence inputs linked a suspicious email account to a series of bomb threats. Subsequent examination of his laptop and mobile phone allegedly revealed spreadsheets containing details of nearly five lakh email IDs, along with passwords, recovery email addresses and two-factor authentication credentials.
Suspicious Chats, International Links
The alleged operation had been running since 2021. A key focus of the investigation is the suspected international network of buyers. While analysing the online chats, the ATS reportedly found exchanges between Shankhwar and a Bangladeshi national, Alamin Islam alias Alamin, through Facebook and Whats App. The chats revealed that the Kanpur youth sold fake email accounts to Amin in return for 6,000 USDT in cryptocurrency.
The ATS alleged that the email accounts were sold to individuals in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, with payments routed through cryptocurrency platforms. Investigators are analysing financial transactions, digital communications and other electronic evidence to identify the buyers and establish whether they were directly involved in issuing threats.