Three foreigners held for hacking Congress MP Dalwai's email

Three foreign nationals have been arrested for allegedly hacking the email account of Rajya Sabha member Husain Dalwai and sending emails seeking money in his name to several persons, Mumbai police said Saturday.

The Congress MP's secretary had lodged a complaint in this regard on October 13, an official of the Cyber Crime Cell said.

Konate Mohamed (31) and Outtara N'Golhaud (32), both from Ivory Coast, and Okpeaifoh Michael (31), a Nigerian, were arrested from Delhi Friday, he said.

The accused allegedly obtained the password of Dalwai's email account, and sent emails in his name to several persons in his mailing list stating that he was facing a financial crisis and needed money urgently, the official said.

During the probe, police found that the hackers were based in Delhi, said Akbar Pathan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime).

A team of Cyber Cell went to Delhi and tracked down the accused, he said.

A laptop, pen drive, mobile phones, ATM cards of various banks and Rs 70,000 in cash -- which some people had sent believing that Dalwai had asked for money -- were seized from the trio, he said.

A court in Mumbai on Saturday remanded the accused in police custody till November 2.

"We suspect that the accused are involved in some more frauds of this kind," DCP Pathan said, adding that further probe was on.