Varanasi blast: IM men used wi-fi link of Vashi brothers

An email sent to media organisations after Tuesday’s bomb blast at Varanasi — warning of more such attacks — was sent by Indian Mujahideen operatives who hacked into an unsecured wi-fi connection that belonged to two Navi Mumbai-based brothers, police said.

An email sent to media organisations after Tuesday’s bomb blast at Varanasi — warning of more such attacks — was sent by Indian Mujahideen operatives who hacked into an unsecured wi-fi connection that belonged to two Navi Mumbai-based brothers, police said.

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On Wednesday, police teams descended on 601, Mansarovar Cooperative Housing Society at Vashi, where Nikhil, 28, and Akhil Talreja, 26, stay.

They were questioned for several hours, after which the police gave them a clean chit.

While Akhil is a disc jockey, Nikhil works for a private firm.

Akhil told Hindustan Times: “I am innocent. This is not the first time a wi-fi connection has been hacked into to send such an e-mail. I want to help the police nab those who sent the e-mail. I would never betray my country.”

“The brothers don’t seem to be linked to those who sent the mail,” Navi Mumbai police chief Ahmad Javed said.

The email was bounced off different servers and the Anti-Terrorism Squad traced the final internet protocol address to a man named Binghui Gao, whose computer was logged on to the China Unicom Heilongjiang Province’s network in the Chinese province of Harbin.

Investigators said on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media that the e-mail was uploaded on December 6 and programmed to be sent after the blast the next day.