“The Da Lakhvi Code” continues …….

Various cryptographers based in Delhi were contacted. Some were in the armed forces, a few others worked in government research organizations, some were in universities and so on. Everyone contacted began to work on the code, but no one was able to crack it quickly. The intelligence agency we were collaborating with procured decoding software and computers overnight in an attempt to crack the code but to no avail.
The next email that came was on 19 February, again from chachoji@hotmail.com to rashid32XXXX@hotmail. com. It read:

Dear Rashid
Ek naya ID bana lo. Yahin par mujhko iss ID par mail karo 002 .01 .004 .7 .000 .7 .07 .07 .7 .000 -7
Zaid.
[Dear Rashid, please make a new email ID. Then mail me on my present ID. -------CODED MESSAGE-----------
Zaid.]
This email was followed by another one sent a little over an hour later, at 11.46 a.m., from chachoji@hotmail.com to rashid32XXXX@hotmail.com stating:

Dear Rashid naya id yah par nahi hot par hai aap bhi hot par bana lena aur neha ko bhi naya wala de dena aur bolna who bhee naya bana kar mail kare. Zaid.
[Dear Rashid, the new ID is not on yah but is on hot. You too make your ID on hot and tell Neha to do

likewise. You both should mail me on my new ID so created.]

It was not difficult to guess that ‘yah’ referred to yahoo and ‘hot’ to hotmail.
Since the code had not been cracked, the first message was Greek to us. We felt like headless chickens running around trying to decipher the code. There was a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me that disaster was about to strike and we would certainly be hanged for it. Pramod went to the extent of contacting a friend of his based in the US, who worked for a cryptography company, to help us on an urgent basis.

To be continued ......