Missed calls on cellphones and messages saved in the drafts folder of an e-mail account. That’s how, say 7/11 investigators, Lashkar-e-Toiba’s alleged Mumbai chief Faizal Ataur Rehman Sheikh communicated with Rizwaan Ahmed Daude, a conduit in Saudi Arabia used by LeT commander Azam Cheema to send funds from Pakistan via the hawala network.

‘‘Faizal and Rizwaan used the same e-mail account. Whenever Faizal needed to contact Rizwaan, usually for money, he would leave a missed call on his mobile phone. This would be a signal for Rizwaan to log in to the e-mail account,’’ said a Crime Branch officer.

‘‘Faizal would have prepared a message before that. But instead of sending the message to Rizwaan on the Internet, he would save a copy in the drafts folder of the e-mail account. Since Rizwaan knew the password to the account, he could log in and view the message. This way, there was no message to intercept,’’ the officer said.

Sources added that usually Rizwaan relayed Faizal’s messages to Cheema, but the LeT commander also knew the password to the e-mail account, and would use it whenever he needed to communicate directly with Faizal. All three knew each other’s mobile phone numbers, and would recognise missed calls as signals to log in to the e-mail account.

Investigators stumbled upon these details after the State Anti-Terrorist Squad seized 37,000 Rials (Rs 4.6 lakh) sent to Faizal in two installments before and after the 7/11 blasts. One of the installments landed in Mumbai, the other in Pune. Rizwaan, an IT professional based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was Faizal’s neighbour in Pune.

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