Heywood can’t leave India: ATS

MUMBAI: The Anti-Terrorism Squad has asked US national Keith Heywood, the Sanpada resident whose IP address was the alleged source of the Ahmedabad terror e-mail, and his wife Kens White not to leave the country till further orders.

Heywood has been under scanner when it was found that his IP (Internet Protocol) address was used to send an e-mail warning just five minutes before the Ahmedabad blasts. “We have served him a written order asking him not to leave the country till his name is cleared by investigators,” said a senior ATS officer.

The Indian agencies are doing a background check on his past assignments to find out whether he was covertly involved with some government or private intelligence agency.

“A case has been registered in Ahmedabad and, under instructions from the Gujarat police, a look-out notice has been served at all the land, sea and air exit routes to stop the husband and wife if they try to flee the country,” said Parambir Singh, additional commissioner of police, ATS.  

“He is definitely under our scanner as his name surfaced in a serious matter. We are still looking into the matter and he has not been given a clean chit yet,” said ATS chief Hemant Karkare.

Various intelligence and investigating agencies like the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau, and the Gujarat and Maharashtra police are coordinating the probe from different angles, sources revealed.

It was further learnt that after training with the US Army, Heywood later joined the police. The sources, however, refused to divulge his exact rank or posting when he served in the police. He came to India some six months ago as head of a company specialising in training employees from call centres in Navi Mumbai to speak with an American accent.

“Having served with the US Army and the police, one cannot believe that he was so naïve in operating and maintaining computer security and secrecy. The US cops are trained to be very careful in such matters,” the official added.