The warning arrived like any other hoax threat. It was conveyed in neat handwriting on plain paper tucked into an envelope. The message was simple: all key installations of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) could be blown up any day.

It didn’t end there. The writer had even named those who would carry out the job, before mailing the letter to the IOC’s regional office in Dhakuria earlier in the month.

Almost three weeks later, officers of Lake police station have confirmed that it was less a public threat and more the settling of a private score.

According to the cops, the letter was middle-aged Gautam Mukherjee’s desperate bid to get even with the men he held responsible for his failure to run a financial magazine.

“The Special Branch tracked down Mukherjee, in his mid-50s, and lodged a case with Lake police station. It is an unusual case, since the letter came from a mature, well-educated man,” said deputy commissioner of police (South) Ajay Kumar.

Apart from naming two people and offering other details about them, the letter bomb mentioned that they had decided to blow up five IOC installations.

“These included the aviation filling storage plant at gate no. 2 of the airport, lube-blending plant at Paharpur and the IOC terminal at Budge Budge,” claimed a senior officer of IOC.

Rattled, the IOC brass passed on a copy of the letter to Lake police station. The Special Branch was later roped in. While launching a probe, policemen were deployed outside the IOC’s Dhakuria office and the other installations named in the letter.

After interrogating several persons, including the two named in the letter, at their Mahatma Gandhi Road office, the detectives rounded up Mukherjee at his Dum Dum residence on September 19.

He was produced in a city court the next day and remanded in police custody. On Monday, he was produced again in court, where his remand was extended till Wednesday.

“Mukherjee had started the magazine a few years ago. Soon, he ran into problems. He was finding it difficult to pay the two, who are attached to the press where the magazine used to be printed. He decided to get even with them by sending the letter,” said a senior officer of Lake police station.

He added that Mukherjee had confessed to his ‘crime’.