The Hindu : National : Kochi engineering student held for e-mail threat to Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 01, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Kochi engineering student held for e-mail threat to Sonia

Staff Reporter

— Photo: PTI

Arun Surya after his arrest in Kochi on Friday.

KOCHI: The city police arrested an engineering student on charges of sending an e-mail to President Pratibha Patil stating that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi would be killed on November 14 and bombs set off at different places in the country. He had used an email address he falsely created in the name of a friend.

The police said Arun Surya, also known as Kannan, 23, of Kaloor, sent the mail from a cyber café at Palarivattom.

The mail was sent to the President’s official e-mail address, with copies to heads of RAW, Intelligence Bureau and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on October 24. The mail said: “Four blasts would be done at various sensitive places around Kochi and Delhi! Sonia Gandhi would be killed on Nov. 14th.” And the mail was signed “Rehmatullahi Berkathu.”

On getting the mail, Aditya Arya, Joint Commissioner of Police, Rashtrapati Bhavan Security, forwarded it to the DGP. The Kochi City Police was entrusted with the inquiry on Thursday.

The header of the email showed the mail was sent by a person named Manisha Manohar from the email address m.m1114@hotmail.com. The mail was sent from Reliance Webworld at Palarivattom.

Investigations made at the cyber café revealed that the account was created at Reliance Webworld on M.G. Road and the accused then went to the Webworld at Palarivattom to send the e-mail.

Closing in on the time at which the mail was sent, the police took into custody five persons for interrogation and the accused confessed to the crime. The accused told the police that he used a friend’s name to settle a personal score. He is a student of the Cochin University of Science and Technology and his parents are bank officers.

Various sections of the IT Act and the Indian Penal Code for hacking, impersonating and criminal intimidation have been invoked against the accused.

Corrections and Clarifications

The third paragraph of a report "Kochi engineering student held for e-mail threat to Sonia" (November 1, 2008) was "The mail was sent to the President's official e-mail address, with copies to heads of RAW, Information Bureau and CBI on October 24." It should have been the "Intelligence Bureau".

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National