Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash / Representative Image
West Bengal is no stranger to political turbulence. But in the span of a single day of February 25, 2026, the state found itself at the intersection of two alarming developments that were coordinated bomb threat emails sent to multiple courts across the state, and a suspected explosive device discovered near railway tracks in Birbhum district. Taken together, these events paint a deeply unsettling picture of a state where the mechanisms of fear appear to be operating with deliberate, calculated precision.
Courts Under Siege: The Anatomy of a Threat Campaign
The first story unfolded within the formal temples of justice. Senior judges at district courts across West Bengal in Asansol, Durgapur, Chinsurah, Berhampore, and at the City Sessions Court in Kolkata's Bankshall area received back-to-back emails warning that IED-type bombs had been planted on court premises and could detonate at any moment.
The sheer scale of this coordinated email campaign is what makes it so striking. This was not an isolated threat to a single institution it was a sweep across Bengal's judicial infrastructure. Police were immediately alerted, bomb squad units were dispatched, and court proceedings were suspended for over an hour at multiple locations. Legal proceedings came to a halt precisely because they had to no presiding officer, no matter how composed, can be expected to continue deliberations when their life and the lives of those around them may be at stake.
District Judge of West Burdwan, Debaprasad Nath, acknowledged the email was "likely a hoax" while also confirming that evacuation was ordered as a safety measure. His candid assessment that the threat was probably false but could not be ignored captures the impossible bind these institutions find themselves in. A threat does not need to be real to be effective. The evacuation itself is a victory for whoever sent the email.
Police sources noted that the emails bore similar wording and appeared to have originated from Tamil Nadu, though investigators were clear that IP address verification through a formal probe would be necessary before any conclusions could be drawn. The careful language of law enforcement here is important, as they are neither dismissing nor confirming, because they genuinely do not yet know.
The Railway Track Incident: A Physical Threat to Add to the Digital One
If the court emails represented a threat delivered through a screen, the second development was chillingly physical. On the same day, a suspected bomb was reported on railway tracks approximately 1.5 kilometres from Sainthia railway station in Birbhum district. The Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police rushed to the spot. Train movement on one track was halted as a precautionary measure.
The Gujarat Samachar report adds an important contextual layer as it places both the railway incident and the court threats in the same news cycle, by noting that Bengal was, in effect, experiencing simultaneous shocks across two critical public systems in the judiciary and the railways. That these events coincided is either a remarkable coincidence or evidence of something more deliberate.
Whether the Sainthia device was real or a planted hoax object remains unclear from available reporting. What is clear is that the disruption to train movement, even temporarily, has its own falling effect on daily life, commerce, and public confidence.
The Political Storm that follows every incident
In West Bengal, no security incident exists in a political vacuum. This one is no different. BJP leader and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari was quick to point fingers at Bangladeshi outfits, specifically naming Jamaat-e-Islami, and demanded an NIA investigation. His argument that those seeking to preserve the names of undocumented immigrants on electoral rolls have a vested interest in threatening the judiciary, which is currently engaged in the Supreme Court-mandated Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process for electoral rolls.
Trinamool Congress spokesperson Arup Chakraborty countered with equal sharpness, pointing to a recent incident where two alleged BJP workers were reportedly caught by locals for planting bombs on railway tracks at Nimtita station in Murshidabad. His implication that the BJP itself cannot be ruled out as a source of such disruptions.
This is the familiar composition of Bengal politics where every crisis becomes a counter-allegation, every investigation becomes a political football. What is lost in this back-and-forth is the institutional gravity of the situation. Courts were evacuated. A train line was halted. Senior judges were placed in fear. These are not ordinary events that can be folded neatly into one-sided arguments.
What does this moment demand?
The immediate priority is to suggest the IP addresses, verify the origin of the emails, determine whether the Sainthia device was real, and hold those responsible to account. But beyond the forensics, there is a larger institutional question that Bengal and India must confront.
When bomb threats can be weaponised to paralyse courts, delay electoral processes, and terrorise railway passengers, the damage is not only physical. It is psychological and democratic. Fear, even when no bomb actually detonates, achieves its purpose by making people hesitate, evacuate, and doubt the safety of their own institutions.
Bengal's courts, its railway networks, and the judges serving in the SIR process must be made demonstrably secure, not as an assurance issued at a press conference, but as a reality experienced on the ground. Until then, whoever is sending these threats from Tamil Nadu or from Bangladesh, or from any other origin that investigators eventually confirm will know that the tactic works and that, more than any single explosion, it is the most dangerous signal of all.
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