Investigators scrutinise mail sent after blasts

An email sent out after the Mumbai serial blasts has come under scrutiny of investigating agencies. Union Home Secretary R K Singh said in New Delhi on Friday that apart from the 16 CDs containing CCTV footage from the blast sites, the mail that is also being verified.

According to investigators, the email was sent in the name of a Telangana activist claiming responsibility for the blasts. Investigators had rubbished this motive and say the mail could be a diversionary tactic by persons who carried out the blasts.

This email, sent a couple of hours after the blasts, said it was carried out since the government was not creating a separate state of Telangana. However, the origin of the mail is what makes it interesting. The mail has been tracked down to the Gulf, sources said.

Sending mails after blasts is an Indian Mujahideen hallmark and mails were sent after blasts in Bangalore Ahmedabad, Delhi and even Uttar Pradesh court blasts, the first one by the outfit.

In all these mails, they have cited an emotive issue such as the Babri Masjid demolition or the Gujarat riots or cases of 'innocent' youth being arrested or the Kashmir problem.

However, there is a different pattern in this mail. The fact that it came from the Gulf, which is an IM stronghold, leads investigators to think that the outfit could have sent the mail. However, there has been not other mail from the IM claiming responsibility for the attack. So the intention maybe to put investigators on a different track, say sources.

Investigators also do not rule out the possibility of this just being another prank mail to put the Telangana agitation in bad light. If one looks at the name (withheld) of the person who sent it from a Yahoo account it is clear that it of a person from coastal Andhra Pradesh. "All angles are open, but we are not reading too much into it although we do find the need to track the exact source of the email," investigators pointed out.