Kaushik Basu and Sabitri Dandapat

Ten days after the terror mail hoax, police haven’t found evidence against either Kaushik Basu or Sabitri Dandapat but continue to keep them behind bars.

The charges against them are of criminal conspiracy and war against the state, though the only thing that the police are certain about is that the email was sent from the cyber café owned by Kaushik and managed by Sabitri. Investigators are clueless about whether the duo played a role in the July 29 hoax or knew who was behind it.

Since the fourth day of the investigation, the focus has been on the youth who Sabitri said was in the Salt Lake cyber café around the time when the email, which warned of blasts, was sent from a computer there. A sketch of the youth has been drawn on the basis of her description but there is no trace of him.

“We have some leads and are working on it. We are also waiting for the report of computer experts examining the hard disks of seven computers,” said Jawed Shamim, the deputy commissioner of the detective department.

He declined comment on the Central Forensic Science Laboratory taking long to send its report.

Police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti had said on the night Kaushik was arrested that there was enough evidence to suggest he was the culprit. The Basu family has been silent so far, but a police officer told Metro that the arrests could end up being a source of embarrassment. “Nothing concrete has been found against them so far. We are not even interrogating them these days…Both are really shaken and counting the days in the hope that they will be released soon.”

Kaushik is in a second-floor lock-up at Lalbazar and Sabitri on the first floor. Like other detainees, they are being served vegetarian meals.

Kaushik, an MBA, will be produced in Bankshal court on August 12 and Sabitri the next day.