Suspected IM man held for sending terror mail

MUMBAI: Nearly four years after a terror email was sent by the Indian Mujahideen, claiming responsibility for the September 19, 2010 firing and blast outside the Jama Masjid in Delhi, the cyber crime investigation cell on Friday took a suspected IM operative, Ejaz Shaikh, (28), into custody for allegedly sending the mail from a cellphone from near Mumbai’s Manish Market.Two Taiwan nationals were hurt in the firing.
An offence was registered in Mumbai after the city cops found the origin of the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the terror mail in Mumbai. Shaikh has been booked under various sections of the IT Act, 2000.
Shaikh was first arrested on September 6, 2014, from outside Saharanpur station in UP by the Delhi Police’s special cell. Later, he was taken into custody by the Maharashtra ATS for his alleged role in providing logistic support in the 2010 Pune German Bakery blast. The CCIC then took him in custody in connection with the terror email case. In the Jama Masjid firing case, the special cell had earlier arrested suspected IM operatives, Qateel Siddiqui, Yasin Bhatkal, his father in-law Irshad Ahmed and several others.
“Much before the Delhi terror strike, IM’s global chief Riyaz Bhatkal, who is reportedly hiding in Pakistan, had sent the draft of the terror email to Shaikh. After the firing and blast, Shaikh used a cellphone to send the terror email to several media houses,” said a police officer, adding that even the IM’s Indian chief, Yasin Bhatkal, now behind bars, was unaware of the person who had actually sent the email. Police had earlier claimed that Shaikh, a Pune resident, was the logistics man and hawala router of the banned outfit.
Besides sending e-mails, Sheikh used to provide logistics to the IM men in India and prepared fake identities needed by them to procure mobile SIM cards, collecting foreign money transfers, obtaining rooms on rent and even in getting enrolled in professional educational institutions as a cover, police said. Police said he was never present in the actual crime. “After the German Bakery blast, Sheikh played the role of devils’ messenger in the Jama Masjid strike on September 19, 2010. Using expert technological cover, he sent e-mails to various Indian media houses shortly after the strikes, claiming the act to be from IM and as a revenge for the Batla House encounter," said S N Shrivastava, special commissioner, special cell, had said after Shaikh’s arrest last year.