Cases registered: e-mail threat to PM, Prez

KOCHI: Police registered cases of sedition and criminal conspiracy in connection with an e-mail threat to President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is visiting Kerala next week, and a sketch of the man suspected to have sent the message was released on Saturday.

Two cases under Sections 506 (sedition) and 120 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code were registered at the Central Police Station here.

The sketch of the man suspected to be behind the e-mail threat was released by the police team investigating the case.

The sketch, drawn up using information gathered from the owner and employees of the internet cafe here from which the e-mails were sent, depicts a man aged between 25 and 35 years, police officials said.

Four persons, including the owner of the cyber cafe, are being questioned by police.

The e-mails, sent to several senior officials of the state, also contained references to Parliament attack convict Mohammed Afzal Guru and Abdul Nasser Madani, an accused in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts now held in a jail in Tamil Nadu.

Apart from the owner of the cyber cafe, which was sealed by police, the others being questioned are two women employees and a watchman.

Twelve people visited the cafe on October 26, when the e-mails were sent to at least 20 top officials, including the state police chief and the home secretary, police said.

The hard discs of four computers seized from the cyber cafe were sent to the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing for forensic analysis, they said.