Techie held for sending hoax terror alerts

Mumbai: The Karnataka Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a 36-year-old IT professional, Vinit Shah, who is said to be suffering from psychological disorders, in Bengaluru for allegedly emailing at least four hoax terror alerts to the Maharashtra ATS and the Mumbai police.

Shah had been sending ‘alerts’ since January this year and had, in April, warned of a chemical attack. After checking his email details and the Internet Protocol (IP) address, the Maharashtra ATS informed the Bengaluru ATS about Shah’s location, following which the man was arrested.

Shah’s parents told the Karnataka police that he was suffering from psychological disorders.

According to official, Shah had in January this year sent an email to the Mumbai police from Bengaluru about a group of terrorists who were planning to attack six prominent places in Mumbai and Bengaluru. Security was subsequently beefed up accordingly but nothing happened.

A police source said, “An ATS investigated the fake email ID. He sent a second mail after a 40-day gap. The probe did not throw up anything useful.”

In the month of March, he sent some emails asking the authorities to increase security in the city.

At the end of the April the same person sent an email to Mumbai and Bengaluru police falsely claiming that chemical attack would soon occur in Mumbai as well as in Bengaluru.

“In this mail he had requested the police to save people. Also mentioned, don’t take it lightly. Within a day’s time Mumbai ATS officials traced his IP address. They found that the person was from Bangalore so they informed the Bengaluru police about him. Within a week the police was able to trace Shah, who is a resident of Indira Nagar,” said a source.

Stating that no one had suspected Shah was the culprit initially, an ATS official said, “We checked two computers and a laptop of his and found several email IDs. Currently, the Bengaluru police is still interrogating him.”