Delhi blast: Investigators pore over bomb report for clues
Vishwa Mohan,TNN
Sep 9, 2011, 02.54AM IST
NEW DELHI: With no breakthrough in the Delhi High Court blast case, the NIA is looking closely at the preliminary forensic report on the bomb - stating presence of nitrate-based explosives with traces of PETN even as another email, sent to media houses on Thursday, made the task much more complex.
Unlike Wednesday's email sent by Harkat-ul-Jihadi putting onus of the blast on HuJI, the second email - purportedly written by one "Chotoo" - stated that the blast was actually carried out by Indian Mujahideen.
The sender also warned of another blast outside a shopping mall on Tuesday - forcing security agencies to step up vigilance at all such places not only in Delhi but also in other cities.
"Even if the text of email and the manner it was sent do not match the typical Indian Mujahideen style, investigators are not taking it lightly. It may be a prank or red herring. But, we are trying to verify its authenticity as part of our probe to look into different angles," said an official.
Besides writing the text in Hindi using Roman script, the mail, sent by Chotoo, spelt Mujahideen as Muzahiddin. All the earlier emails sent by IM had carried text in 'good' English. "All these things are being examined, besides looking at forensic evidence which talks about PETN," said an official.
Though the terror groups do not have history of using PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate) frequently in India, the traces of it points to some "cross-border connection" in getting the plastic explosive for local modules of terror groups that could be anyone from Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi-al-Islami (HuJI) to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) or Khalistani outfits.
Attaching importance to this 'angle', the NIA on Thursday roped in forensic experts from Gandhinagar and Hyderabad to check the 'make' of the bomb having no 'timer' or 'wire' and contacted Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of neighbouring states - Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan - for sharing their expertise.
PETN was first seized in India in January 2006 when Special Cell of Delhi Police caught two HuJI militants who got the consignment from Bangladesh. It was later found that militant groups in J&K and Punjab had got their consignments carrying the plastic explosive through couriers operating on the Indo-Pakistan border.
An official said, "Even if the angle appears to be quite far-fetched at this juncture, we cannot rule it out unless we find something else. It is important to explore all angles. We may reach a certain point through the process of elimination."
Besides, the NIA also announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for clues to the blast. The move came immediately after the government handed over probe of the previous Delhi HC blast of May 25 to the agency. The case was earlier investigated by Delhi Police which could not make any headway in its probe.
The second mail sent from "chotoominani5@gmail.com" was received at 12:37 PM claiming that Harkat-ul-Jihadi-al-Islami had no role to play in the blasts and it was done by Indian Mujahideen. The mail also reasoned that they had chosen Wednesday as the day of the blast as it was a busy day for the HC. Delhi HC hears PILs on Wednesdays.
"We are examining the email received by the media houses about its authenticity and veracity and (we are) taking it seriously," secretary (internal security) U K Bansal said.
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