In a chilling case that spans hoax bomb threats, dark web deception and a disturbing obsession, police have arrested a Chennai-based tech consultant who allegedly triggered panic across India in a calculated bid to destroy the man she loved, because he married someone else. Rene Joshilda, a senior consultant at Deloitte and trained robotics engineer, now faces a string of cybercrime and terror-related charges after authorities say she sent dozens of bomb threats and even claimed responsibility for the recent Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, all to frame her former colleague.

What happened?

The unraveling began on June 3 2025, when a school in Ahmedabad’s Sarkhej area received an anonymous email threatening to blow up the premises. “Police are sleeping, they cannot do anything… We are going to blast a bomb in your school…” read the chilling message. The Geneva Liberal School received multiple such threats in the following days. Shortly after, similar emails were sent to the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, in the wake of the Air India AI171 crash that killed several passengers, including former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

One email claimed: “I think now you know power. Like we sent you mail yesterday, we crashed the Air India plane with our former CM. We know the police would have thought that the plane crash was a hoax and ignored it. Well done to our pilot. Now you know we are not playing. Now you know.”

These messages weren’t isolated. Over the past year, more than 20 threat emails were sent to targets across 12 Indian states, including stadiums, hospitals, schools and airports. All threats turned out to be hoaxes, but they sent police departments into emergency mode—triggering evacuations, searches and panic in cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kochi.

Who is she?

Rene Joshilda, 30, is no ordinary suspect. According to police, she is a highly educated and tech-savvy professional with a background in robotics engineering and has been working as a senior consultant at one of the Big Four firms in Chennai since 2022. Her LinkedIn profile, professional image, and digital footprint bore no sign of the storm she was allegedly brewing beneath the surface.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sharad Singhal said, “She has done her engineering from Chennai and a course in Robotics. Currently, she is a senior consultant at Deloitte. She loved Divij Prabhakar and wanted to marry him but it remained one-sided.”

When obsession replaced love

According to police, Joshilda became obsessed with a male colleague, identified as Divij Prabhakar, and allegedly fell into a spiral of vindictive rage when he got married earlier this year. Investigators say her goal was not only to express anger but to utterly ruin his life.

Police allege that she began sending bomb threats using fake email IDs, some of which were created in Prabhakar’s name. She also allegedly forged a marriage certificate showing herself as his wife and circulated it among their office circle. Her harassment extended to women who interacted with Prabhakar, whom she reportedly targeted using fake WhatsApp and Instagram accounts created through virtual numbers in 2021 and 2022.

“She was in one-sided love with a Brahmin boy,” a senior cybercrime official said. “When he got married, she started planning revenge. She wanted to ruin him.”

Joshilda, police say, used the dark web, virtual private networks (VPNs) — including Pakistani servers — and encrypted email addresses to mask her identity. In total, she is suspected to have purchased around 80 virtual numbers and sent hundreds of fake emails. At least 13 threat emails were sent to Narendra Modi Stadium, four to Geneva Liberal School, three to Divya Jyoti School, and one to BJ Medical College.

Another email to the stadium read: “Bomb successfully planted in Narendra Modi Stadium. Save the stadium if you can.”

Police believe she deliberately timed these threats around major events like VIP visits and religious processions, including the upcoming Jagannath Rath Yatra.

How police cracked the case

Despite her technical expertise and efforts to cover her digital trail, investigators say a single careless mistake brought the whole plan crashing down.

“We were tracking her for a long time. 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,” said Joint Commissioner Singhal.

That “small mistake” was logging into both her real and fake email accounts from the same device—exposing her IP address and linking her to the threats. She was arrested from her residence in Chennai on Saturday, 21 June, after weeks of surveillance by Ahmedabad Cyber Crime.

According to authorities, digital and physical evidence was recovered from her home. “We can say that we have busted a big module,” said Singhal, while adding that other state police departments are now working with Gujarat Police to probe similar incidents.

Joshilda allegedly confessed to sending the threats and admitted she had planned to send more emails during the upcoming Rath Yatra had she not been caught. One officer involved in the investigation said, “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.”

As investigations continue, Joshilda remains in custody. She faces multiple charges under the IT Act and Indian Penal Code, including for criminal intimidation and use of forged documents.

(With inputs from PTI)