Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 20 (IANS): Kerala Police Tuesday informed a court here that a sub-inspector arrested for allegedly sending a forged letter to the media has links with banned outfits.

Police told the Thiruvananthapuram judicial magistrate court Tuesday that they have stumbled upon crucial evidence that subinspector Biju Salim has links with banned outfits and hence they should be given his custody to crack the case.

The court allowed police to keep Salim till March 27.

Salim, who was with the High-Tech cell of Kerala police, had been arrested Sunday and sent to judicial custody. He has been accused of sending out a forged letter to the media saying the government wanted 268 e-mail IDs snooped upon.

The Oommen Chandy government was left gasping in January when a Malayalam weekly magazine published a letter purportedly sent by a top intelligence official to the High-Tech Cell with the list of e-mail addresses to be probed.

Among the list of e-mail IDs, more than 230 belonged to members of the Muslim community. It created a huge uproar in the state as many felt that a particular community was being kept under the scanner.

Chandy came under heavy attack and announced a probe into it.

The preliminary probe found the documents which led to the e-mail row were leaked from the High-Tech Cell of Kerala Police. But finally the letter published by the media was found to be fabricated and leaked to the media by Salim.

Police claim to have found out that a conspiracy on this was hatched in Kozhikode and here. Crucial documents and CDs have been recovered from Salim and police have zeroed in on a few others who allegedly helped Salim, say police.