HYDERABAD - A 32-year-old man was arrested by police last Thursday (April 20) after he allegedly sent a hoax e-mail about a terror plot involving the hijacking of aircraft in several Indian cities.
All Motaparthi Vamshi Krishna wanted to do, however, was to avoid going on a vacation with a girlfriend he met online.
The incident resulted in beefed up security at airports in Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai, although no flights were cancelled.
A statement by the Hyderabad police said Krishna had sent an e-mail to its Mumbai counterparts, claiming to be a woman who had overheard six men at a hotel plotting to hijack planes.
Police investigators traced the IP address to an Internet cafe in Hyderabad, and at first narrowed the e-mail's sender to eight people.
Krishna, a travel agent who is married with a child, was identified as the culprit after they reviewed CCTV footage.
He confessed that he had an online girlfriend in Chennai who had asked to go on a trip with him to Mumbai and Goa.
But as he had no money, Krishna hatched a plan to send his girlfriend a fake plane ticket from Chennai to Mumbai, before creating an e-mail account and sending the hoax e-mail to police.
At a press conference on the case, B. Limba Reddy, deputy commissioner of police at the commissioner's task force in Hyderabad who led the investigation, told CNN that Krishna was arrested on four charges, including impersonation and providing false information.
"He didn't have the money, but if he cancelled because of that, it would have hurt his pride, and his friendship with the girl would've come to an end," said Mr Reddy.
"So, his thinking was that if the flight was to be cancelled and it was because of the airport, he wouldn't be at fault."
Here is the e-mail, in its original form, that Krishna sent to the police:
"hi sir am female here am doing this mail frim Hyderabad as i don't want to revel my details couse am a female and scared of issues, and mailing u this couse in the after noon around 2pm while having lunch there were 6 guys talking those guys are musclims, they were talking abt plane hijack tommarrow in Hyderabad chennai and Mumbai airport they were talking very slowly but unfortunately i heard few conversations abt this, they were saying all us 23 people have to split from here and have to board flights in 3 cities and hijack them at a time. They spoke some other things also but i couls not hear them as i heard only these few sentences from them, i dont know do am i doing correct or not and they are true or not but heard this so kindly go through this and as i informed this as a duty and a citizen of india and pls dont make me to get into issues."
