The eagerness of the City Police to crack the Dilsukhnagar twin blasts left many a red face among the city top brass after they realised that they were conned by Vivek Ponnulliyil who was arrested on Friday.
The arrested man known also as Vicky was accused of misleading the police by producing fabricated emails and projecting them as mails sent by the Bhaktal brothers who are believed to be in Pakistan.
Vicky, sources confided, had managed to convince some senior officers that Riyaz Bhaktal and Yasin Bhaktal were planning to organise a terror attack on March 7. Believing that it was an “actionable input” from a reliable informant, the city police went on an overdrive on Wednesday and Thursday. the overzealous policemen ordered closure of shops, frisked everyone and checked every vehicle setting off a scare. Realisation dawned on the senior officers that they were taken for a ride only after personnel of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) who examined the so-called email intercepts declared them as being fabricated.
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Acutely embarrassed over the revelation, the city top brass decided to register a case against Vicky and arrest him. A case was registered against him under provisions of the IT Act.
Sources also say the city police paid a hefty sum to Vicky for the 'valuable' information and in anticipation of some breakthrough leading to prevention of another terror strike and also detection of the bomb blasts case. No officer was willing to go on record on this issue for obvious reasons.
But the efficacy of the city police has come in for a sharp criticism as central agencies like the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the external intelligence wing - the Research and Analysis Wing, NTRO, Ministry of Home Affairs were watching the developments in Hyderabad. Following his arrest, there was considerable reduction in the security checking in the city.
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