The state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Wednesday said that it would initiate steps to lift the ‘Look Out Notice’ issued against US national Ken Haywood, who mysteriously managed to slip out of the country from Delhi late on August 16 despite the notice. ATS officials also categorically stated that Haywood has now been ruled out as a suspect in the Ahmedabad terror e-mail probe, though they believed that he “misguided and deceived” the police.

“We will begin the process of getting the Look Out Notice against Haywood lifted. Half a dozen agencies probing the terror e-mail have not been able to find any evidence to link Haywood to it, and therefore he is not a suspect in the case. Even brain-mapping and polygraph tests conducted on him have not revealed anything against him. We would have allowed him to leave in a couple of days anyway,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (ATS) Hemant Karkare.

Asked whether Haywood was liable for any action against him by the ATS since he breached the Look Out Notice at a time when he was still being treated as a suspect, Karkare said, “I will have to check on this technicality and examine the possibility of taking any action against him. However, Haywood is not a suspect in the case anymore. Often Look Out Notices issued against people are challenged by them if they are not booked in a case. However, it is a matter of serious concern that someone who has a notice issued against him managed to leave the country. The Ministry of Home Affairs is conducting a probe into the matter.”

According to the ATS, at the time Haywood left the country, the police’s only interest in him was to get to the bottom of allegations levelled by him through a newspaper, that a drunk ATS officer had demanded a bribe from him.

“We had called Haywood to the ATS office on the morning of August 15 to give him an opportunity to name the officer concerned, so that we could take the strictest action possible. When he did not turn up, an ATS officer went to his house, and Haywood told him that he would come on Monday (August 18) as he was not feeling well. The next day when some of our officers followed up with him, he sent them a message saying he would meet us the following day. It seems that he was misguiding and deceiving us,” said Karkare.

After it was learnt by the Gujarat Police and their Maharashtra counterparts that it was a suspect named Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqir who probably sent the terror e-mail, the ATS showed Qureshi’s photographs to those around Haywood’s flat in Gunina building at Sanpada, Navi Mumbai.