New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has ordered the Anti- terror probe agency NIA to investigate the probe of blast that occurred on January 29 on APJ Abdul Kalam road near Israeli Embassy in Delhi, an official in the security set up said here on Tuesday.
With initial probe indicating to Iranian link in this blast and the international ramification the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has received an order from MHA, a senior official said, adding that the agency is going to register a case soon under amended provisions of Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act.
India has assured the Israeli Government for the protection to the Israeli embassy personnel and on Monday, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu that the incident will be fully investigated and the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
Soon after the incident on January 29, the External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar also spoke to the Israeli Foreign Minister and assured him of full security to the embassy and its personnel.
The officials in the security network have also confirmed that security has been beefed up at all places across the country having Israeli links including Israeli Embassy in Delhi.
A team of NIA officials had already visited the blast site on January 29 evening and had collected evidence materials. The officials also carried out complete mapping of the area to identify the route and the persons involved in the blast.
The initial investigation in this case suggests that explosives and other materials used in the low-intensity IED blast were locally sourced, a Delhi Police official had said.
He also said that the Delhi Police probe team has been in touch with the central agencies, including IB and immigration authorities and trying to get the details and their locations of Iranian nationals who have come to India in the past one month.
Police sources have also confirmed that the envelope that was found at the blast site on Friday evening has revealed the Iranian connection to the blast and it was claimed that “It was a trailer and their target was Israeli installations in India”.
The probing team of Delhi Police’s Special Cell’ had earlier in the day visited the site near the embassy to collect more evidence as part of its ongoing probe, sources said, adding that it managed to get access to footage from some of the CCTV cameras in the area.
“We have recovered some CCTV footage but have not obtained anything concrete yet as most of the CCTV cameras in the area near the embassy were non-functional,” an official in the city police network said.
Earlier, footage retrieved from CCTV cameras showed a vehicle moving suspiciously near the embassy just before the explosion, sources added.
He also said that forensic experts who have also collected some samples from the crime scene on the Friday evening will ascertain the chemical composition used in the low-intensity improvised explosive device (IED).
The bomb disposal squad of National Security Guards (NSG) on Saturday also inspected the blast site to ascertain the composition of the material used in the explosion and will also try to match with ‘Blast Signature’ with the data of the terror outfits locate the ultras behind this incident.
Official sources have also said that the team which collected primary evidences so far, have confirmed that ball bearings were also used as splinters that were found scattered on the ground near the site.
Around 1710 hrs on Friday, a minor explosion occurred at the APJ Abdul Kalam Road in Delhi near the Israeli Embassy which damaged the windscreen and window glasses of three vehicles parked at the blast site whereas no injury was reported in this case
