Hoax Threats & Fake Air India Crash Warning: Inside a Techie’s Revenge Plot Over Unrequited Love

Hoax Threats & Fake Air India Crash Warning: Dozens of hoax bomb threats, panic across 11 states, and a false claim in a deadly plane crash, all allegedly to avenge unrequited love. Rene Joshilda, a 30-year-old robotics engineer from Chennai, has been arrested for masterminding one of the most bizarre revenge plots in recent memory, aimed at framing a former office colleague whose only fault was not returning her feelings.

Using anonymous accounts, Rene sent numerous hoax bomb emails, including one to the medical college on whose hostel building the ill-fated AI-171 crashed on June 13. However, a small slip-up led to her arrest in Chennai.

Rene Joshilda is an engineer trained in Robotics and has been working as a senior consultant at Deloitte in Chennai since 2022.

She was in love with one Divij Prabhakar, but he never reciprocated. Rene dreamt she would one day marry Divij, but was left shattered when he married someone else.

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Blinded by the will to take revenge, Rene decided to use her technical knowledge to spread panic with hoax bomb threats. She did so using different email IDs, some of which were in Divij's name.

“When they were working together, she used to create fake email accounts and harass any woman who showed any interest in her secret lover. In one case, she harassed a woman colleague suspecting her to be interested in the male colleague to the extent that she quit her job,” police said.

Her emails were timed to create panic and usually came before religious processions or visits by VIPs, police said.

Rene sent 13 emails to Narendra Modi Stadium, 4 to Geneva Liberal School, 3 to Divya Jyoti School, and 1 to BJ Medical College, police said.

Besides, she sent such emails to places in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, Telangana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana, police said.

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One of Rene Joshilda’s threatening emails also mentioned the Air India plane crash of June 13, India’s worst aviation disaster in decades. She had sent an email to BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad saying the crash was orchestrated and not an accident.

“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,” a mail to the medical college sent after the crash read.

“Well done to our pilot. Now you know we are not playing. Now you know,” the mail further said.

All but one person on board AI-171 died in the crash, and the total death toll stands at 260, including 19 non-passengers. The plane had crashed on the medical college’s hostel building within seconds of take-off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.

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