'The mail has been sent using a data card and a mobile phone; the initial internet protocol (IP) address has been traced to Mumbai, but, in all probability, a proxy server was used,' said a central intelligence officer.
The e-mail which was sent to some news organisations a few hours after the attack on foreign tourists in Delhi originated in Mumbai. Investigators have traced it, allegedly sent by the Indian Mujahideen (IM), to a Tata Indicom connection registered in the name of a woman who lives in the western suburbs. But investigations have revealed that the name is fictitious.
“The mail has been sent using a data card and a mobile phone; the initial internet protocol (IP) address has been traced to Mumbai, but, in all probability, a proxy server was used,” a central intelligence officer said. Sources in the Mumbai police said they had received information from the Delhi police, and have started investigating the matter.
“It was converted into a PDF format file and kept ready to be sent. But it was finally sent at around 2pm,” the officer said. The reason for the delay, the officer explained, could be the pressure cooker bomb which was scheduled to explode at noon.
“They were probably waiting for the bomb to explode, but it malfunctioned. However, it was shown on news channels that the car had caught fire. This is when the e-mail senders must have realised that the bomb did not explode and sent the mail,” the officer said.
The needle of suspicion now points at the Maharashtra module of the IM. “There are several factors which strongly indicate that, the most important one being that the e-mail mentions an incident in which a woman was apparently mistreated in the KEM hospital in Mumbai. No one knew about this incident, however, a small report had been published in a city-based tabloid around a month ago.
Considering, that the incident was reported only in that tabloid, someone staying in and around Mumbai could have noticed it,” the officer said.
Another aspect is that there are two senior members of the IM who are still absconding. One is Abdus Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer and the other is Mohsin Choudhary. “Both of them are known to be technology savvy and the modus operandi used to send the e-mail on Sunday is an advanced method which cannot be very easily detected,” the officer said.
Also, the e-mail mentions about the political scenario in Maharashtra. It mentions about how anti-terrorism squad (ATS) chief Rakesh Maria is reportedly doing whatever state home minister RR Patil is asking him to do. “This also is an indication that the sender is in the know of the political and police scenario in Mumbai and Maharashtra,” the officer said.
Following this, the Mumbai and Maharashtra police have launched a massive investigation to trace the sender of the e-mail.
— With inputs from Mayank Aggarwal in New Delhi
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