PTI

Bhopal, Jul 20: A youth was arrested here today for allegedly sending an e-mail to a Hindi daily posing as the Students Islamic Movement of India chief in Madhya Pradesh besides claiming responsibility for the Mumbai serial blasts, a senior police official said.

Ninteen-year-old Sumit Tamrakar, a resident of Chola area here, was arrested within 48 hours of sending an e-mail to the newspaper's suggestion box on July 16 in which he identified himself as SIMI's state chief, Inspector General of police Sanjeev Singh said here.

The threatening mail sent by Sumit, who has studied up to the 12th standard, mentioned about a letter dropped inside the donation box of a temple, he said adding that the letter was later recovered by the police.

The letter claimed whatever happened in Mumbai was only a "trailer and more dreadful and severe attacks would be carried out in Bhopal," Singh said.

Swinging into action, police traced the cyber cafe from where the e-mail had been sent and subsequently arrested Sumit whose handwriting also matched with that in the letter recovered from the temple, he said.

On preliminary interrogation, the accused claimed to have posted the e-mail just as a prank aimed at creating a sensation, Singh said adding that he was being questioned further and investigation was in progress to ascertain the facts.

On the e-mail, said to have been sent by the Lashker-e-Kahar to a news channel, top police officials said no information has yet been received from Mumbai police.