Latest news with #ReneJoshilda
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Time of India
Jaipur police to quiz cyber expert held in Ahmedabad for multiple bomb hoaxes
Jaipur: A Jaipur police team will question 30-year-old Rene Joshilda, arrested Monday by Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell, for allegedly sending a string of hoax bomb threat emails to several locations across the country, including the SMS Stadium in Jaipur and other venues. Joshilda, a robotics expert, currently employed as a senior consultant at a private firm, allegedly sent at least four threatening emails last month targeting the SMS Stadium during the IPL season. According to police estimates, Jaipur alone received at least 65 hoax threat emails in 2025, most of which targeted schools, with additional threats aimed at stadiums, court complexes, metro stations, hotels, medical colleges, and the airport. You Can Also Check: Jaipur AQI | Weather in Jaipur | Bank Holidays in Jaipur | Public Holidays in Jaipur "Initial investigations have confirmed her involvement in the threat emails sent to SMS Hospital between May 8 and May 13," an official said. Police sources also indicated that Joshilda may be questioned in connection with different threat emails besides SMS Stadium, including the one sent on May 18, which falsely claimed bomb attacks at two court complexes—Tonk Road Family Court and the Metro Court in Bani Park—and a metro station in Mansarovar. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Paras Sector 59 Gurgaon | Paras Floret Low-Rise Flats Birla Book Now Undo Investigations revealed that Joshilda purchased at least 80 virtual mobile numbers and relied on VPN services to conceal her digital trail. Police said she created multiple fake email accounts under male identities to mislead authorities and used cyber tools, including spoofed email IDs.
India Today
14 hours ago
- India Today
Love unrequited, woman techie tries to frame co-worker for Air India crash
In the cold glow of a computer screen, Rene Joshilda plotted revenge. With every click, she crafted terror—not with explosives, but with words. And she always signed them with the name of the man who had become the subject of her single-minded the past year, Ahmedabad Police say Joshilda, a robotics engineer and senior consultant with Deloitte in Chennai, sent hoax bomb threats to more than 20 locations across India: stadiums, schools, airports and hospitals. Her targets included the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium in motive, police say, was deeply personal. Joshilda wanted to frame her colleague, who did not return her affections and got married earlier this year, enraging her. "She was in one-sided love with a Brahmin boy," said a senior official with Ahmedabad Police's Cyber Crime branch. "When he got married, she started planning revenge. She wanted to ruin him."The emails, sent over months, triggered panic across 11 states: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Punjab. Each time, police scrambled teams, evacuated buildings and launched search operations. Every alert turned out to be by the police as highly educated and meticulous, Joshilda utilised the dark web and encrypted email IDs, even using Pakistani VPN and accounts in the name of the man who never reciprocated her feelings. All this was to mask her identity and implicate a day after Air India's flight AI 171 crashed into the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad, college authorities received a chilling email."We crashed the Air India plane yesterday. You thought it was a hoax. Now you know we're serious." The message went on to warn of more mail was eventually traced to Rene her technical know-how and efforts to destroy all digital evidence, Ahmedabad cybercrime officials managed to pinpoint a technical slip-up that led them to her doorstep in Chennai. She was arrested last week."She told us that if she had not been caught, she was planning to send two or three more emails during the upcoming Rath Yatra," the official also revealed a pattern of harassment in Joshilda's past. She allegedly harassed former friends in 2021 and 2022 by creating fake WhatsApp and Instagram accounts using virtual numbers to impersonate case has now drawn the attention of state police departments across the country. They are coordinating with Gujarat Police to examine related remains in custody and faces multiple charges under the IT Act and criminal law.- Ends
News18
15 hours ago
- News18
'You Thought It Was A Hoax': Chennai Woman Behind Bomb Scare Emails Took Ahmedabad Crash Credit
Last Updated: Chennai tech consultant Rene Joshilda sent hoax bomb threats to multiple cities, claiming she orchestrated the Air India crash in Ahmedabad. A Chennai-based woman accused of sending dozens of bomb threats across Gujarat and other Indian states also claimed responsibility for the Air India crash in Ahmedabad earlier this month, investigators speaking to the Times of India said. The woman, Rene Joshilda, a senior consultant at a multinational tech firm, allegedly ran a coordinated hoax campaign using spoofed emails, VPNs and the dark web to target schools, hospitals and high-security zones. The police said that her motive was to frame a man she wanted to marry. In an email sent to Ahmedabad's BJ Medical College on June 13, she referenced the Air India disaster and wrote: 'We crashed the Air India plane yesterday. You thought it was a hoax. Now you know we're serious." She warned that more attacks would follow. Police later confirmed that this mail too came from Joshilda, sent as part of her attempt to escalate public fear and implicate her former partner, Divij Prabhakar, who married someone else earlier this year. The crash she referred to, involving Air India flight AI-171, had already sparked widespread speculation and was now being used by Joshilda as a scare tactic, investigators said. The case began with a bomb threat received by an Ahmedabad school on June 3, triggering a nationwide investigation. Over the next several days, more emails surfaced targeting public institutions including the Narendra Modi Stadium and BJ Medical College. Investigators said she used a mix of fake email IDs, anonymized virtual phone numbers, and secure browsers to mask her tracks, launching threats timed with religious festivals, school schedules, and VIP movements in at least 12 states including Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Kerala. Despite these precautions, a small technical error reportedly led officers to her residence in Chennai, where she was arrested. 'We were tracking her for a long time," a senior police officer said. 'She was very smart and didn't reveal her virtual trail, but due to a small mistake of hers, we tracked her and caught her from her house in Chennai." Police also recovered digital devices and documents linking her to the threats. Officials said that the email trails, technical footprints and her motive was built around the rejection she faced.
The Print
18 hours ago
- The Print
Rajasthan CMO to Modi stadium, jilted techie ‘sent 30+ hoax threats' in 11 states to ‘frame' man she loved
The probe was heading nowhere until Sunday, when the Ahmedabad cyber crime branch arrested Rene Joshilda from Chennai for allegedly sending hoax threats to several public installations, including the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. 'If required we will murder Bhajan Lal Sharma also and cut him into pieces and pack him black suitcase and keep in the centre of the stadium (sic),' reads the email whose contents are now part of an FIR. New Delhi: On the morning of 15 May, the Rajasthan Police brass went into a tizzy as the Chief Minister's Office received a death threat through an email. The sender also threatened that a senior IAS officer would be chopped into pieces before being dumped in a suitcase fitted with a time bomb right inside Jaipur's Sawai Mansingh Stadium. A senior consultant with Deloitte, Rene had sent out mails to implicate the man, a colleague, she wanted to marry, the Ahmedabad police said. She repeatedly sought to implicate her colleague in 'a rape case' in a Hyderabad hotel in many of the emails. On 12 May, she had allegedly sent a threat mail to the principal of College boasting about the role in the Air India crash, they added. Rene had issued at least 21 hoax threats in the last two months, Joint Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad Crime branch, Sharad Singhal, said, adding that a majority of these threats were about blowing up the cricket stadium last month when it was frequently hosting Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. 'Last month, there were IPL matches, including the final which was attended by over 1 lakh people. None of those threat emails could be taken lightly until each and every one of them was verified. This had become a menace,' a senior Gujarat Police officer told ThePrint. The Ahmedabad cyber crime branch formed a high-level team comprising Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Lavina Sinha, DCP Ajit Rajian and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Hardik Makadia to trace the sender of these emails. Upon examining the emails received by Gujarat authorities, investigators focused on potential suspects who were involved in the entire chain of events. They stumbled upon a 'partial' digital footprint which the techie had left behind around two years back while using an encrypted platform. 'She may not have been an expert (at that time) and hence, left a partial footprint behind. When the investigation and analysis matched with the identity of that three-year-old digital identity, it was traced to her in Chennai,' a police officer said. Rene had allegedly created approximately 130,000 fake accounts, which may have been generated using more than 100 mobile numbers she acquired around three years ago, the investigators said. Also Read: Born out of 'desperation', DRG is first line against Maoists in Bastar. Tech is giving them an edge Early signs of trouble Born to well-off working parents, Rene did her education in Chennai. After schooling, she pursued a Bachelor of Engineering in electrical and electronics from Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering. She did an internship with Kaizen Robotics before completing her engineering degree. Her professional career started with Accenture as an application development associate in July 2017. She remained there until December 2021, earning timely promotions along the way. The techie enrolled in a postgraduate programme to upskill herself in artificial intelligence and machine learning through the Great Learning platform. In January 2022, Rene joined Deloitte as a consultant and worked from home, investigators told ThePrint, adding that over time, she became interested in one of her colleagues who was working from Bengaluru. The investigators said there were complaints about her troubling college friends through Instagram. 'The matter was not pursued further as she had claimed that her account on Instagram was hacked,' an investigator said. Though she knew to operate anonymously on the dark web, the activities allegedly intensified over the last six months. 'The marriage of her colleague, whom she was interested in, earlier in February, was the final trigger, following which she unleashed her rage,' a police officer said. Rene allegedly sent more than 30 threatening emails to security and government departments about explosions at public places or government installations. Investigators said these threats were sent either from email accounts opened in the name of the Bengaluru colleague, or via email accounts opened with keywords such as 'Pakistan' to terrorise the receivers as much as possible. The threats, according to the Ahmedabad Police, were made during Operation Sindoor to maximise their psychological impact. On the morning of 12 May, Rene allegedly sent an email alerting authorities about a bomb blast at the Narendra Modi stadium. In the same month, she also threatened to blow up at least two upscale schools in Mumbai as well as the stadium and district courts in Jaipur. Threats were received by a hospital and the Holkar stadium in Indore. DCP Sinha stated that the techie issued 13 threats to the Narendra Modi Stadium, with 10 of them originating from email accounts with Pakistan in username and the remaining three with the Bengaluru colleague's name. 'Apart from this, in other 11 states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, Telangana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, etc., the accused also sent emails threatening to blow up bombs at different places,' the DCP said in a statement. (Edited by Tony Rai) Also Read: What is CBI's case against Tata firm, Nehru Port Trust officials booked in Rs 800 cr dredging 'scam'
Time of India
18 hours ago
- Time of India
Chennai woman arrested for hoax bomb emails driven by obsession
A 30-year-old woman named Rene Joshilda, who worked as a senior consultant with an IT firm in Chennai, has been arrested by the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch . She is accused of sending at least 21 bomb threat emails to places in 12 Indian states, including Gujarat. Some of the places she targeted were schools, the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, and BJ Medical College. Obsessed with colleague, took revenge after his marriage Joshilda is an electrical engineer and works for Deloitte USI in Chennai. According to police, she was secretly in love with a male colleague who didn't know about her feelings. She became angry and upset when he got married on February 25 this year. Out of revenge, she sent bomb threat emails using his name or accused him of rape in fake emails. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Villa For Sale in Dubai Might Surprise You Villas in Dubai | Search ads Learn More Undo Harassed other women and made fake documents Police said her obsession had been going on for two years. She would create fake email accounts to send messages and harass any woman who talked to her male colleague. In one case, she harassed a woman so much that the woman quit her job. Joshilda even created a fake marriage certificate showing that she was married to this colleague and shared it with others in the office. Used advanced cyber tools Live Events To hide her identity, Joshilda used advanced cyber tools like VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), fake phone numbers, and spoofed email accounts. She is believed to have bought around 80 fake phone numbers and sent hundreds of false messages and emails. Police said her turning point came when her colleague got married. That's when she began sending a series of fake bomb threats, trying to frame him and create legal trouble for him. How she got caught Although she tried hard to cover her tracks, one small digital mistake helped the police trace her. Police collected digital proof and documents from her devices. She had been sending such emails for over a year before being caught. She was arrested at her home in Chennai. Her emails caused panic in multiple states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu. Police say that in many of the threatening emails, she mentioned the name of the male colleague. This helped them link the case back to her. [With TOI inputs]
