The Gujarat Assembly's budget session was thrown into turmoil on Wednesday morning when a bomb threat email — allegedly sent by a Khalistani extremist outfit — forced the evacuation of the entire legislative complex minutes before proceedings were due to begin, delaying the session by an hour before it resumed after a thorough search found nothing suspicious.

The assembly secretariat received the email early Wednesday morning, threatening a bomb blast inside the complex at 2:11 pm. Speaker Shankar Chaudhary said he immediately informed Chief Minister, Deputy CM, and the DGP upon receiving the threat. An announcement was made to evacuate the building, with MLAs and secretariat staff seen hurrying down stairwells from the second floor. Bomb disposal units and dog squads conducted a comprehensive sweep of the premises before the all-clear was given.

Gandhinagar SP Ravi Teja Vasamsetty confirmed the threat was a hoax, stating the email had been sent from a Gmail ID and contained English text mixed with transliterated Punjabi words. The threat referenced March 25 — the last scheduled day of the ongoing budget session — as a significant deadline. A case has been registered and an investigation launched to trace the sender.

Legislators from both the BJP and Congress united in demanding firm action against those responsible. BJP MLA Mahesh Kaswala noted that similar threats had previously been sent to schools and courts across Ahmedabad, and that the assembly had now been targeted in the same pattern. Congress MLA Imran Khedawala echoed the demand, calling for the government to crack down decisively on the growing menace of hoax threat emails targeting public institutions. Speaker Chaudhary struck a defiant note, saying Gujarat had faced terror attacks fearlessly in the past and would not be intimidated by such emails.