The Hindu : Front Page : Security alert in Kerala

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Saturday, Oct 28, 2006
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Security alert in Kerala

Kerala Bureau

Threat to the lives of Prime Minister and President by e-mail

PROBE ON: Computer experts of the police searching for clues at an Internet cafe in Kochi on Friday from where e-mail threats on the lives of the Prime Minister and President were sent on Thursday. Photo: Vipinchandran

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Police have sounded an alert in the State and are reviewing the security for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who is to visit the State next week following death threats to him and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam by e-mails.

The police took into custody the owner of a cyber cafe Moideen, his wife and two employees in Kochi on Friday for questioning after tracing the origin of the e-mails to the cafe at Pookaranmukku in the city.

The e-mails, sent on Thursday afternoon, were addressed to the President of India, the Principal Secretary (Home) of Kerala and higher police officials in the State and New Delhi, including the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Director-General of Police (Kerala) and the Delhi Police Commissioner.

High-level meet

Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the cyber police and a high-tech crime cell of the police would investigate the case. Scientific methods would be used to detect the crime.

Official sources said the sender held the Prime Minister and the President responsible for the "plight" of Afzal Guru, who was facing death sentence in a Parliament attack case, and for the condition of Abdul Nasir Maudany, who had been held in Tamil Nadu as an undertrial prisoner in the Coimbatore serial blasts case for the past eight years.

Officials said the content of the e-mails was of a religious fundamentalist nature. The name of a banned organisation figured in the sender's e-mail address, which was created at the cafe.

The police had used the help of cyber forensic experts to track the messages to the Internet browsing centre. They were preparing the sketch of the suspect on the basis of the description given by the owner.

Cafe sealed

About a dozen people had visited the cafe on Thursday and the police would have to detect the sender from among them. The cafe was sealed on Thursday night and a case for sedition and sending threats was registered

An official said only one person could have been involved in the crime. The browsing centre kept no record of those who used its facilities despite a general direction by the State police earlier this year. The police have identified the computer used by the sender. A senior official did not rule out the possibility that the e-mails could be the handiwork of a mischief-maker. The State police had faced a similar situation last month when two letter bombs exploded in the capital on the day of the President's visit. Though there was speculation about the possible hand of terrorist outfits, the police found it was the work of a "meek person seeking revenge on his detractors in an innovative manner."

Visit as scheduled

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan told journalists in Kochi that the Prime Minister's programmes remained unchanged. Dr. Singh is scheduled to arrive here on October 31.

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