The e-mail purportedly sent by terror outfit Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility for the Varanasi blast is not the first such electronic mail linking Mumbai and Navi Mumbai to terror attacks.
The homegrown terror organisation had sent several such e-mails in the past to claim responsibility for blasts in different parts of the country.
An e-mail was sent by the banned outfit to several media organisations after the Delhi's Jama Masjid firing incident this September and it was traced to suburban Borivali. It was sent using a Tata mobile phone procured using fake documents. Police suspect the email was sent through a proxy server located in a foreign country to hoodwink security agencies.
After the September 13, 2008 blasts in Delhi, an IM e-mail claiming responsibily for the explosions was sent and the IP address was traced to Chembur, an eastern suburb of Mumbai. The unsecured Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) of a firm "Kamran Power Control Pvt Ltd" was hacked into and used for sending the mail.
Five blasts took place within a span of 31 minutes in busy markets and commercial localities in Delhi leaving at least 30 dead any many more wounded. Four bombs were defused.
In August 2008, an e-mail was sent to various media organisations by IM that boasted about its involvement in several blasts in the country. The mail ridiculed Intelligence Bureau as "Ignorance Bureau" and forensic experts as "foren-sick".
The IP address of this email was traced to unsecured WiFi network of Khalsa college, Matunga, in central Mumbai.
In July, 2008, the IM had used an unprotected WiFi network at the Navi Mumbai residence of American national Kenneth Haywood to send a similar e-mail to news organisations about the Ahmedabad explosions.
The Varanasi blast-related e-mail was sent after hacking into a broadband Internet connection of a Navi Mumbai resident, police sources said.
The unsecured WiFi was used to send the five-page e-mail after which two persons were questioned and later let off, they said.
