A police official attached to the cyber cell of police department was today suspended in connection with leakage of information over an alleged attempt to hack personal e-mails of some Muslim leaders in the state.

Sub-Inspector S Biju, in charge of the cyber cell was suspended pending an enquiry in connection with the controversy, official sources said.

Chandy had on Jan 21 dismissed report in a Malayalam daily that police had drawn up a list of prominent Muslim leaders and cultural personalities for hacking their personal e-mails, saying it was an attempt to create communal divide.

He had said there was no directive to police to hack or gather password of emails of any persons and that police had only sought to know addresses of persons whose e-mail IDs were found in the possession of a person facing investigation.

The article stated that SB- CID,the intelligence wing of state police, had drawn up a list of 258 persons from the community for hacking, which included leaders of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second largest partner in the ruling Congress-led UDF.