By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
Bangalore: Couple of weeks ago Bangalore police arrested 19 year old youth Prabhat Kumar Thakur from Gujarat for allegedly sending a threatening email to Kempegowda International Airport Limited (KIAL) in Karanataka. The news of his arrest, however, was not given much coverage by electronic media in the country for the reasons best known to them.
The said email was sent under the signature of Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba to KIAL on 21st July intimidating to hijack one of a passenger aircraft.
![Prabhat Kumar Thakur (19 Years) arrested from Gujarat for sending threatening email of hijacking aircraft in Karnataka - [Source vknews]](https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5589/14789742908_0f8d33f540_o.jpg)
Prabhat Kumar Thakur (19 Years) arrested from Gujarat for sending threatening email of hijacking aircraft in Karnataka – [Source vknews]
Soon after receiving the threatening email KIAL General Manager informed international airport police and a case was registered under section 66 of IT Act 2000 and other sections of IPC. There after Bangalore police started investigating the source of sending of email and sought help of state cyber crime police to crack the case.
As per Bangalore police General Manager of KIAL had received the threatening email on July 21 from the Gmail ID with username internalsecurityinteligence5. Police started to track Internet Protocol using which the threatening email was sent on 21st July.
State cyber crime police found that the mail had been sent from a mobile device. The SIM card used in the mobile device was traced to Gujarat. State police then sent a three-member team led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police to Gujarat for investigation and possible arrest of sender of email.
As per reports, a police at first detained a farmer against whose identity the SIM card had been obtained but released him after questioning as he was not the one using that SIM card. Then the investigation was carried on the basis of the unique identity code of the mobile handset from which the mail originated which lead the investigation team of Karnataka to a 19 year old youth Prabhat Kumar Thakur in Gujarat.
Karnataka police arrested Thakur on 4th of August with the help of the Gujarat police. Preliminary investigation of the police revealed that Thakur, a class 10 drop out, belongs to Bhildi village in Banaskantha district of Gujarat
According to the Karnataka police, Thakur told them that he was not aware of the effect of such threatening email. He also told police that he got the email ID of KIAL General Manager from KIAL Facebook page. He created the email ID using a SIM he obtained with the help of fake ID.
More investigation details have not been made available and hence mystery continues to remain on Thakur’s motive behind sending such a threatening email under the signature of IM and LeT and as to who all helped him in obtaining KIAL manager email ID and fake ID SIM card and actually sending the email.
Dubious nature of Indian Electronic Media
It’s been 15 days that a 19 year old youth Prabhat Thakur from Gujarat has been arrested by Karnataka police for allegedly sending threatening email of hijacking passenger aircraft to KIAL but the electronic media has not reported it at least once.
Civil rights activists have often flayed the electronic media for their biased coverage of issues related to terrorism.
Unlike last month when Mumbai police Commissioner Rakesh Maria received threatening email of avenging Gaza killings by Mujahideen that got wide coverage in media, the response this time has been mute. The arrest was only reported in snippet in some newspapers.