A software specialist, who tried to take the city police for a ride by claiming to have information on possible terror strikes, landed himself behind bars after police saw through the game.
Vivek Ponnulliyil aka Vicky, who hails from Palakkad in Kerala, had also designed a programme that could track emails and capture the screens of computers kept under surveillance in counter-terrorism operations.
He is also stated to have helped the Border Security Force (BSF) in the North-Eastern states in tracking emails of some suspects.
Produces ‘proof’
A resident of Andal Homes in Yapral, Vicky had approached a police Inspector of the Task Force on March 5 and claimed that he was privy to information about a possible terror strike in the city. To buttress his claim, he gave printouts of emails purportedly sent by seven different persons and also extracts of email, photographs, IP address details to convince the inspector of his claim. The documents he provided contained the names of some terrorist organisations that were responsible for series of blasts in the country.
NTRO steps in
Unsure about the veracity of the information, the city police sought the help of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO). A six-member NTRO team, led by its Director Muktesh Chander, was rushed to Hyderabad. It saw through the game and established that all printouts were, in fact, prepared by Vicky himself.
“We were able to confirm that Vicky had submitted fabricated documents,” Mr. Chander said.
The Cyber Crime Police then registered a case against Vicky under Section 43 read with 66 of IT Act and arrested him, the Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma told a press conference on Friday.
