Ahmedabad, Gujarat — In a chilling case of unrequited love spiraling into cyber terror, a 30-year-old woman from Chennai has been arrested for sending 21 hoax bomb threats to schools, hospitals, and public landmarks across 12 Indian states. The aim? To frame her former colleague who refused her marriage proposal.
The accused, identified as Rene Joshilda, was a senior consultant at Deloitte’s Chennai office. She was arrested by the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch on Monday after a months-long investigation that uncovered her involvement in a series of fabricated threats that spread panic across the country between February and June 2025.
An Obsession Gone Too Far
According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sharad Singhal, the root of this entire operation lay in an unhealthy obsession. Rene had allegedly been infatuated with a male colleague, Divij Prabhakar, for over two years. But Divij, reportedly unaware of her feelings, did not reciprocate. When he later rejected her, Rene’s fixation escalated into a disturbing pattern of harassment.
Police say Rene went as far as creating a fake marriage certificate and circulating it among colleagues to imply a non-existent relationship with Divij. She also harassed female colleagues who interacted with him at the workplace.
Her obsession allegedly took a darker turn when she learned of Divij’s upcoming marriage, scheduled for February 2025. Fueled by jealousy and revenge, Rene reportedly began using his identity to send bomb threat emails, with the objective of implicating him in criminal activities.
Widespread Panic and Fabricated Carnage
From February to June, bomb threat emails — signed under Divij’s name — were sent to high-profile locations across 12 Indian states, including:
- Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, Ahmedabad
- BJ Medical College, Gujarat
- Multiple schools in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Mumbai
- Hospitals and public buildings in Kerala and Tamil Nadu
In one of the most horrifying emails, Rene falsely claimed responsibility for a fictitious Air India plane crash on the Ahmedabad-London route on June 12, in which she claimed 241 people had died—an incident that never happened.
“She created mass fear and panic across educational institutions, stadiums, and healthcare facilities,” said Commissioner Singhal. “Her motive was clear—to frame Divij Prabhakar as a terrorist and ruin his life.”
Digital Manipulation at a Shocking Scale
The investigation revealed that Rene had used advanced digital methods to mask her identity. Over the past two years, she allegedly:
- Purchased over 80 mobile numbers through VPNs
- Used anonymous email accounts to send hoaxes
- Operated from cyber cafés and rented apartments to cover her digital footprints
- Created fake social media accounts to further impersonate Divij
Experts say the digital trail she left behind made it one of the most technically complex hoax campaigns ever handled by Indian cybercrime units.
A Corporate Office Turned Crime Scene
At her workplace in Deloitte, Rene’s erratic behavior had reportedly already raised red flags. Colleagues mentioned that she exhibited signs of obsession, particularly in relation to Divij. The internal HR was investigating her conduct when the bomb threat case broke out.
“Her actions weren’t just driven by love. They were driven by a dangerous delusion of possession and vengeance,” said an officer familiar with the case.
National Response and Legal Charges
The threats had forced multiple schools and institutions to shut down temporarily, causing distress to thousands of students and parents. Several police departments in states like Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu had been on high alert due to the scale and seriousness of the hoaxes.
Rene Joshilda has now been booked under:
- Sections of the IPC related to criminal intimidation, impersonation, and defamation
- IT Act for cybercrime, identity theft, and misuse of communication networks
- UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) in consideration of terror-related implications (subject to final forensic analysis)
She has been remanded to judicial custody, and authorities are considering extraditing digital evidence from international email servers.
This case has opened up critical conversations around mental health in the corporate sector, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and the abuse of digital anonymity tools like VPNs and spoofing software.
As the country recovers from the chaos caused by a single individual’s obsession, it’s clear that India’s cybercrime infrastructure, though stretched, is capable of dismantling even the most elaborate hoaxes.
