Threat email: Police slap cyber-terrorism charges

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: The police have registered a case of ‘cyber terrorism’—the first in the state since an amendment to the Information Technology Act—where a threat email was sent to the BSE and NSE on Monday. The maximum punishment for cyber terrorism is life imprisonment.
The IT Act was amended on February 5 this year when the law on cyber terrorism was introduced. Prior to that, offenders were booked only for hacking. The MRA Marg police and the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell are jointly probing the case. The suspect has been detained in this case.

The police said an email challenging the security agencies to prevent a terror attack was sent by one Shahab Md with an ID sh.itaiyeb125@yahoo.in to BSE’s administrative email ID corp.relations@bseindia.com at around 10.44 am on Monday. The IP address of the sender has been traced to Patna in Bihar. The ISP is Sify. The email ID was created just four minutes before the email was sent. “The sender had, while creating the new ID, given two mobile numbers in the personal details column. Both the numbers belong to a photo frame-maker in Patna,’’ said an officer. The email was written in English.

The MRA Marg police have registered forgery for purpose of cheating, criminal intimidation cases under the IPC and a cyber-terrorism case under the IT Act.

The Times of India, May 6, 2009

Email warns of terror attack on BSE, NSE

IN FOCUS: The email was sent to the BSE’s administrative ID

Internet Protocol Address Traced To Bihar

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: A threat email challenging security agencies to prevent a terror attack was received by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday morning. The email sender stated that the Pakistan-based terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was planning a terror strike at the BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The Internet Protocol (IP) address of the sender has been traced to Patna in Bihar. According to the police, the email was received at the BSE’s administrative ID, corp.relations@bseindia.com, around 10.44 am on Monday.

“The email was sent by one Shahab Md with an ID, sh.itaiyeb125@yahoo.in, and the user was in Patna at the time of sending the threat mail,’’ said an officer.

The email, written in English, said, “Around 10 terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiyeba have planned to strike BSE & NSE around 12.55 hours today.’’ The mail warned the security agencies and further stated, “We dare Indian forces to prevent us from doing so. Moreover, five terrorists have already entered the premises at 10 am. Yours most faithfully.’’

Officers probing the case said it could be a prank mail. “However, we cannot take chances and a case has been registered with the MRA Marg police,’’ said an officer.

“The cyber crime investigation cell (CCIC) is carrying out a parallel investigation in the case. “We will trace the accused soon,’’ said crime branch joint commissioner of police Rakesh Maria.

There have been a series of mails since the 26/11 carnage when 10 Pakistani terrorists entered Mumbai via the sea route and went on a killing spree. While nine terrorists were killed in a threeday long gun battle, a 21-yearold gunman, Ajmal Kasab, was captured alive.

This is the four threat mail in the last month. The first two mails were sent to a fivestar hotel while the third one was sent to Air India threatening to blow up the airport.

Later, a mail was sent to a news channel threatening to carry out blasts during the Lok Sabha elections.

THREAT TALK
Around 10 terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba have planned to strike BSE & NSE around 12.55 hours today
We dare Indian forces to prevent us from doing so. Moreover, five terrorists have already entered the premises at 10 am. Yours most faithfully.

The Times of India, May 5, 2009

Chargesheet against Saji likely this week

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: The state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is likely to submit the chargesheet against Saji Mohan (37), an IPS officer of 1995 batch, for alleged drug trafficking this week. The police claimed that Saji had accepted a consignment of 12 kg heroin from a person at Mumbai Central railway station on January 24 and took it to Classique club in Oshiwara from where he was arrested.

According to the police, Saji, who was in Delhi for training after his posting with Enforcement Directorate, came to Mumbai on January 23. He was earlier posted with Chandigarh Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

The ATS had intercepted a phone conversation between Saji and co-accused, city-based businessman Vicky Oberoi and constable Rajesh Kumar of Haryana police. Cops also traced the SMSes exchanged among them.

Saji is accused of delivering commercial quantities of heroin worth over Rs 12 crore in the international market and collecting payment for selling an earlier consignment in Mumbai. “Saji, during his stint as zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir, had stolen over 50 kg of heroin in all from NCB’s seizure. To avoid suspicion, Saji would replace the stolen amounts of heroin with soda lime. He would set aside some quantity of the seized drug and later sell it,’’ said an officer.

At the time of his arrest, Saji was entitled to a salary of Rs 71,000 per month. He had also earned Rs 30 lakh by illegally releasing people caught in connection with narcotics cases in Jammu and Chandigarh.

Saji headed anti-drug trafficking activities over a swathe of northwest India for about two years when he was posted as the zonal director of the NCB in Chandigarh from 2006-08. Moreover, he had been conferred a bravery award in 1999.

In January, the ATS had also arrested Oberoi, a local fish vendor, and Kumar from Mumbai and seized 1.8 kg heroin. Later, the police also recovered 25 kg of heroin from Oberoi’s residence, which Saji had given him to sell in the open market for Rs 5 lakh per kg. Saji is facing another case of embezzlement of Rs 13 lakh in Chandigargh. He has been booked under sections 8(1)(c) and 21 of the NDPS Act.

The Times of India, May 4, 2009

Gay actor will not face charge of cyber terror

SPURNED IN LOVE: Anand Kumar

ATS PROBE IN POWAI EMAIL CASE

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: The anti-terrorism squad (ATS), investigating the “terror email” sent by a smalltime gay actor in order to win his lover back, will not book the actor for cyber terrorism as there was no intention to carry out any act of terror.

“Anand Kumar did not intend to carry out a terror strike but was spurned in love. Therefore, we have not booked him for cyber terrorism, which could get him life imprisonment if convicted,” said an officer. Anand now faces the charge of sending an offensive message through a communication service, which attracts a maximum punishment of three years in jail.
The ATS last week arrested Anand from Thrissur in Kerala after he sent a e-mail to Hiranandani Complex in Powai, threatening to blow it up. Anand is a businessman from Saudi Arabia and has reportedly signed up for a role in a Malayalam movie.

Whenever Anand used to visit Mumbai for business purposes, he stayed with his gay partner, the vice-president of a multinational company. However, his partner became close to another man, an HR executive in a tech firm. This enraged Anand, who called his partner’s new lover a terrorist in the email.

According to an amendment in the Information Technology Act, which came into force in February this year, anyone indulging in cyber terrorism could be sentenced to life imprisonment. Prior to this, even the sending of threat emails was considered “hacking”.

Meanwhile, ATS investigations have revealed that Anand was earlier jailed for four months in Saudi Arabia for abusing a trader. “He had business deals with a trader. Anand abused him and the trader complained to court officials. The police detained Anand and jailed him for four months before he was released,’’ said an officer. “He is not ready to admit to his crime. However, we have gathered all technical evidence against him,’’ the officer added.

ATS officials said two emails were sent to info@hiranandani.net, the official mail address of the group’s administration department, on February 14 and 15. Both came from karmavisva@yahoo.com. The emails claimed that a person staying in the complex had a nexus with terrorists and was assisting them in plotting more attacks.

NET EFFECT
As the amendment to the Information Technology Act came into force only in February this year, all cases of cyber terrorism were treated as hacking. In the Indian Mujahideen cases, where terror emails were sent minutes before and after the Ahmedabad and Delhi bomb blasts last year, the accused were booked for hacking and hence will attract a punishment of three years in prison. The other case of hacking is the Tarannum one in which the Juhu-based bar dancer was booked after the crime branch found details of cricket betting on her computer.

The Times of India, May 4, 2009

Bomb hoax at Powai complex result of gay love gone wrong

Mateen Hafeez | TNN

Mumbai: Investigations into February’s ‘terror’ emails which contained ‘information’ about a plot to blow up the plush Hiranandani complex in Powai and hinted at the person who was ‘colluding with terrorists’ have led police to a gay love triangle. Investigators say the emails were sent by a small-time gay film actor who was spurned in love and wanted to get back at his former partner and the latter’s new flame.

Police officials identified the actor as Anand, a 33-year-old from Thrissur, Kerala. “Our officials are likely to arrest him and bring him to Mumbai on Sunday,’’ additional commissioner of police Parambir Singh of the Anti-Terrorism Squad said early on Saturday. Anand was arrested later.

The person who spurned Anand’s love was the vice-president of a multinational firm, and his new partner was a human resources executive with one of the country’s biggest tech companies.

“Two emails were sent to info@hiranandani.net, the official email address of the group’s administration department, on February 14 and 15. Both came from karmavisva@yahoo.com. They prompted cops to beef up the security in and around the complex,’’ a Powai police official said.

The messages claimed that a person staying in the complex was colluding with terrorists and was assisting them in plotting more attacks. “A person who goes by the name JJ stays as a paying guest in one of the buildings in Hiranandani Gardens,’’ one of the emails stated. This person and the terrorists had sussed out Powai before deciding on the target, the message disclosed, adding, “This person has provided terrorists blueprints of several buildings in the complex.’’

The Powai police registered an FIR on April 18, and the cyber unit of the ATS traced the internet protocol (IP) address of the email to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

It took almost two months of sleuthing for police to figure out the story behind the emails that purportedly warned about a terror threat to the Hiranandani complex in Powai. An Anti-Terrorism Squad team comprising inspector N T Kadam, assistant inspector Nasir Kulkarni, constables Arvind Kashikar and Vikas More, along with inspector Prakash Patil of Powai police station, worked for weeks before zeroing in on the ‘terror suspect’.

As the emails had referred to a Hiranandani resident with the initials ‘JJ’ as a co-conspirator, the police were on the lookout for such a person. “We started searching for a JJ and questioned at least four dozen people with the same initials. We finally hit on the right person only a week ago,’’ an officer said.

‘JJ’ and his partner were brought to the police station and, after sustained interrogation, the cops realized that the case had more to do with a relationship gone awry than with terrorism.

Officials said Anand, a small-time actor from Thrissur, Kerala, and the former partner of ‘JJ’, had lived in Mumbai for the past two years and had been in a relationship with an MNC vice-president. The latter, however, drifted away after getting to know another gay man employed with a leading tech firm. The two moved in together and Anand, taking the hint, moved out of the area. As the police learned all this from the ‘terror suspects’, their probe changed tack and focused on nabbing Anand.

“We found that the ID from which the emails were sent had been accessed several times from a cyber cafe in Vashi between November 2008 and January 2009. The cyber cafe owner identified Anand when shown his photograph,’’ an officer said.

The cops then asked one of the two hoax victims to contact Anand and convince him to return from Saudi Arabia, where he was working. Anand bit the bait—he flew to India, and after a visit to his Thrissur home came to Mumbai thinking he would renew his broken relationship. That was how the cops nabbed him.

The Times of India, April 26, 2009

Email warns of 5 blasts during elections

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: A city-based private news channel has received a threat email, warning of at least five bomb blasts during the Lok Sabha elections in the country. The email, which was sent on Friday afternoon, has been traced to Lahore in Pakistan, said officials.

“The email has been traced to the same person who had earlier threatened to blow up a five-star hotel in south Mumbai and one of its properties in Chennai,’’ said an investigator.

The email was sent from indian.agentshubham@yahoo.com. “It could be a prank. However, we can’t take such emails lightly. It is our job to investigate each and every threat email thoroughly,’’ said an officer.

The earlier emails were received by the south Mumbai hotel on March 30 and March 31. Following the emails, security was beefed up across all hotels in the city.

While investigating the threat email received by the hotel, the officials discovered that the sender, on March 31, also sent a threat email to the Islamabad international airport on its official address, infoiiap@caapakistan.com.pk.

The sender claimed to be an “officer’’ of the terrorist group that had attacked the Lahore Police Academy on March 30. At least 20 policemen were killed in the attack.

The Internet Service Provider (ISP) of the ID is Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). The sender, through another ID, indian.agentshubham@rocketmail.com, had sent a threat email on April 5, threatening to blow up the Mumbai airport, police said.

The Times of India, April 20, 2009

ATS to seek Sadiq’s discharge next week

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: This may come as a jolt for the city crime branch. The ATS will be filing an application next week in the court, seeking the discharge of Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Sadiq Shaikh from the 7/11 Mumbai train bombing case.

The ATS had arrested Sadiq (32) in the blast case on February 28. ATS officials said they questioned Sadiq thoroughly and even subjected him to brain mapping and polygraph tests but did not find his involvement in the train blast case. “We will be filing the application in the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court to discharge Sadiq from the train blast case. This application will be filed before April 28,’’ said ATS additional commissioner of police, Param Bir Singh.

The ATS’ statement comes a week after Sadiq’s confessional statement (given in a crime branch case) was opened in the court in an another case. Sadiq, a Trombay resident, along with 20 others was caught by the city crime branch last year for sending threat emails to news channels and claiming responsibility of a series of blasts across the country.

The crime branch had said the IM had engineered the 7/11 train blasts and Sadiq had helped in assembling and planting the bombs in the trains. However, Sadiq told the ATS that he was in Azamgarh at the time of the train blasts, which his family members had also confirmed earlier.

The crime branch probe indicating IM’s hand in the train blasts had come as a shock to the ATS as it had already arrested 13 suspected SIMI members in the case and filed an 11,000-page chargesheet against them. “We had interrogated Sadiq from all angles and found that he was not involved in the 7/11 train blasts case. Even the forensic test reports, including the brain mapping test, which is an admissible evidence in the court, did not suggest Sadiq’s involvement in the case,’’ said an ATS officer.

The crime branch had claimed that the bombs for the blasts were manufactured in a Sewree flat and the RDX was procured by a wanted accused, Riyaz Bhatkal. On the other hand, the ATS is sticking to its old theory that the bombs were assembled at Govandi and not at Sewree. Moreover, the ATS said the RDX was procured by a Pakistani, Ehsanullah, who had illegally entered India along with 10 other Pakistani accomplices.

The Times of India, April 20, 2009