Scribe lands in jail for cooking up terror tales

The city police's anti-terrorism squad (ATS) arrested an unemployed man on Wednesday for allegedly making false statements that a terrorist outfit was getting ready to attack major temples in the city, including Siddhivinayak, Mahalaxmi and Mumbadevi. 

The ATS picked up Kishore Patil, 21, a freelance journalist with a local newspaper, who was trying to land a job with a local television channel by convincing the station's authorities he had "special" information about the episode. The media channel's officials routed the information to ATS, who immediately took Patil into custody.

"We are leaving nothing to chance," says KP Raghuvanshi, joint commissioner of police and in-charge of the anti-terrorism cell. "We are exploring all available background information about the youth."

ATS officials say Patil claimed he had picked up a 'letter' after it fell from the pocket of a passenger while he was travelling in a train. The letter was scripted in coded language, along the lines preferred by well-known terrorist outfits.

ATS detectives say Patil then started to send out feelers to a particular television channel, stating he could provide them with more information if they hired him. They further say Patil "hatched the plan" to curry favour from media channel authorities.

The police say investigation suggests Patil faked the letter. He arranged the coded text and wrote it himself. Then, he decided to physically take it to a senior journalist with a television channel.