FAQs about Kenneth Haywood

When the name of Kenneth Haywood emerged soon after the Ahmedabad blasts, no one knew what to make of it. A mail warning of the bomb blasts had been sent using the IP address of Haywood. Why should an American, based in Sanpada in Navi Mumbai be in any way connected with an act of terror in a far away place? It didn’t make sense.
The crack investigating team soon established the following facts — 1) Haywood’s computer had been hacked into and used to send the mail; 2) He worked for a technology company. This didn’t help much, till other facts began to emerge: Haywood’s company was a smallish affair that apparently helped local BPOs improve their staff’s English language skills and he himself was also a lay pastor linked to a small evangelist Christian organisation.

Armed with this basic information, the investigators conducted all manner of tests on him and though they found nothing incriminating, were planning to conduct the dreaded brain-mapping test. To be on the safe side, they issued a ‘look out’ notice for him, which meant that he would not be allowed to leave the country without the police’s say so. But one day, while no one was looking, Haywood packed his bags and along with his family left India, leaving behind his furnished apartment and his deposit.

This has made what was a routine investigation into a mystery. But the media is no longer interested and Haywood has told journalists in the US he doesn’t want to comment, so the story has disappeared from the radar.

But it shouldn’t. Even if he is entirely innocent, a sudden disappearance always raises questions; morever, in this case, the state’s Anti-Terrorist Squad is admitting that it has been completely taken by surprise. Beyond that nobody wants to say anything. So all we are left with is conjecture and questions, some of which are:

1.Who was Kenneth Haywood?
This one is easy to answer on the face of it. But there could be more in it. His church links could provide a hint. There are many such organisations working in India, mainly to preach and perhaps to proselytise. None of this is illegal, but in the present climate against active conversions, such outfits tend to keep a low profile. Besides, there is also the question of what his legal status in India was. If he got a residence permit on the basis of working for a tech company and was doing something else, then it may require further investigations.

2.Could he possibly be something more sinister, say a spy?
Intelligence agents do not all look like James Bond — they in fact tend to be everyday, ordinary people who merge with society. This helps them study people closely and also pick up information. By that token Haywood could fit this description. But then he is known to have kept to himself and his kids did not even go to school, preferring to study at home. This means he did not wanted to mix with anybody, which makes him a strange kind of spy.

3. How did he escape?
This one is tricky. The simple explanation is that he just went out, bought tickets, went to the airport and got on to a plane to go home. But, and there are a lot of buts, wasn’t he being watched? Who did he buy tickets from? And the most important one of all did his name not flash in the immigration counter computer? The excuse that his name was not physically ‘fed’ into the system because of a stupid clerical error is hard to swallow.
So was he helped by someone important or was there any pressure from the US government? The US embassy, aware that this is being speculated, issued a statement denying it was involved in any way. This lets all kinds of conspiracy theories do the rounds.

4. Can he be brought back?
His local friends say he will return soon, but that has not been independently confirmed. Legally, India has no case to pursue, because he is not a fugitive. In any case, the local cops have obligingly said he is innocent. But investigators usually like to seek closure for all their cases and this string will be left dangling. Besides, doesn’t he want his deposit back?

5. Any other possibilities?
There are many — he was somehow connected to the attacks is the obvious one, but it looks highly implausible. Another is that Haywood was worried about his church work opening up other line of inquiries. But there is a third, somewhat tantalising possibility-that someone associated with the Ahmedabad terror attacks hacked into his computer and ‘outed’ him. Why would anyone choose the computer of an American, living in a skyscraper far away from the scene of the blasts to send an email?

All these remain theories and speculation. Our investigators have not shown any great success in apprehending terrorists so there is nothing to suggest that they will find out the whole truth about Haywood. Or they might know but are in no position to talk about it. As for the media, it has already moved on to our Olympic stars. The Haywood case will remain one of those perpetual mysteries, unless he decides to talk or write a book, which he has promised to do soon.

Email: sidharth01@dnaindia.net