The tests are being conducted at Mumbai’s Kalina Forensic Sciences Lab since Tuesday and the suspects include Haywood’s neighbours and technicians from Tata Indicom who had access to his WiFi Internet connection, ATS officials said.

They also said that an interim cyber forensics report from the Kalina lab indicated that while Haywood’s computers were not used to send the e-mail which talked of the Ahmedabad serial blasts five minutes before the bombs went off, his WiFi network might have been used as suspected.

“We are subjecting 10 people to polygraph and brain-mapping tests... the tests have been on since yesterday and Haywood was subjected to the two tests today. All the tests are to collect more information on the usage of the Internet,” said ATS Additional Commissioner of Police Parambir Singh. “All those subjected to the tests are males from Navi Mumbai and include residents of Gunina Apartments,” Singh added, referring to the upmarket residential complex in Sanpada where Haywood lives.

ATS sources said that investigators were initially looking at a concept called ‘war driving’ in which people fish and search for unsecured WiFi networks. However, experts now suspect that not only was Haywood’s WiFi connection misused but the users also seemed to know the security features involved.

“In the case of this router, whoever used it knew that all security features were disabled. It’s this hole which needs to be plugged to understand who all had access to this vital information,” said a source close to the investigation.

A traditional router has five basic levels of security which include the pass phrase which one uses to start the router, the security encryption which is enabled at the time of installation, the log which enables the summary of visits and the machine authentication code which allows specific computers to access the Internet through the router. “In the case of this router, whoever used the environment knew that all the security features were disabled,” said an investigator.

The interim cyber forensics report focussed only on the laptops and desktops taken from Gunina and the report of the analysis of the WiFi router is awaited, Addl CP Singh said. The technician who installed the router is also being questioned.

Earlier, ATS chief Hemant Karkare told The Indian Express that Haywood’s background and job were “of a dubious nature.” “We have conducted inquiries into Haywood’s background and his company. These are of a slightly dubious nature, and even the company he works for and its office are a bit suspect,” Karkare said. “However, this does not directly link him with the case in any way. Having a suspicious background, or even working for a bogus company, is not enough to book anyone for involvement in terror activities. We cannot arrest anyone simply for his religious beliefs or profile.” (See Page 9)

G S Hegde, Haywood’s lawyer, said that the ATS had not said anything about his client’s personal life or his involvement in criminal activities. “He (Haywood) called me this morning to inform me that he was being taken for the tests,” Hegde told The Indian Express. “I still maintain that he is not a suspect. He was subjected to the tests as the ATS does not have any clue as to who sent the e-mail and because they want to rule out the possibility that my client sent it.”