Gujarat police to query Google over 500,000 fake Gmail IDs linked to bomb hoax
Gujarat police are investigating Google following the discovery of over 500,000 fake Gmail accounts used to send bomb threats. Authorities are seeking policy changes from the tech giant to prevent the misuse of its platforms for criminal activities.
Why it matters
This case underscores the growing tension between law enforcement and major tech platforms regarding the responsibility of companies to prevent the exploitation of their services for cybercrime.
Police will question Google over a lack of safeguards after smashing a criminal network that set up and managed more than 500,000 fake Gmail accounts to send hoax bomb threats to government offices, a police official told Reuters on Tuesday (September 15, 2026).
India is one of Google’s largest markets by users, where the U.S. tech giant is already under scrutiny after authorities found a pattern of criminals misusing its web development platform, Firebase, for financial scams.
Gujarat police broke up an email network this week that they described as sending “inter-state” bomb threats and arrested two individuals, uncovering 513,847 Gmail IDs and passwords being used since 2022.
Reuters is the first to report that Google itself figures in the investigation. The scale of fake Gmail accounts in use is unprecedented, Vivek Bheda, a senior cybercrime official of the Gujarat police, told Reuters.
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