THE MUMBAI police, probing the threat emails received by former MLA and NCP leader Zeeshan Siddique, have been traced to a server located in a country near the US. The sender of the mails claims to be linked to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s ‘D Company’.
Police said prima facie the person sending the mails doesn’t appear to be linked to any gang. Police are, however, conducting further technical probe to confirm the server they have tracked down is the one used by the accused and not one obtained via Virtual Private Network (VPN).
In the threat mails that Zeeshan received over two days, the person demanded Rs 10 crore as ransom failing the sender threatened he would meet the same fate as his father Baba Siddique, who was gunned down in October last year allegedly by members of the Bisnoi gang. The sender sent him reminder emails every six hours, which prompted him to approach the Bandra police who registered an FIR against unidentified persons.
A police source said, “The server from which the email was sent has been traced to a country near America. It appears to be the actual server from which the mail was sent and not one obtained through VPN though we are still reconfirming that.”
When asked if the sender was linked to any gang, the officer said prima facie he does not appear to be linked to any gang or organisation. However, we are not taking any chances and have reviewed the security of Zeeshan in light of the threat, the officer added.
Last year, threat mails sent to actor Salman Khan were found to have originated in the UK. In that case, the police had found it was an Indian student who had gone to the UK to study, who sent the mail as a prank following which a Look Out Circular (LOC) was issued against him. The moment he lands in India, the police will be alerted and the person will be arrested.
The officer said, “On several occasions people based abroad, especially those of Indian origin, feel if they send an email from another country, they will not be traced or land in trouble. It is, however, not true and we take proper legal action to ensure that whenever the person tries to move out of that country, they are detained at the airport.”
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
