Varanasi probe team joins NIA in Delhi blast case

UP links emerge,ATS team camps in Noida; NIA says Aamir is a conspirator

With the investigation in the Delhi High Court blast case throwing up evidence of a possible UP link and involvement of Indian Mujahideen,a team of the states Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) reached Delhi on Thursday to help the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The ATS team,which investigated the blast at Varanasis Sheetla Ghat last year,was sent after NIA Director General S C Sinha called up UPs Special DG (Law & Order) Brij Lal last evening and specifically requested the team. The team members were hastily summoned and told to leave for Delhi.

Sources said that the NIA investigation indicated that the same module of Indian Mujahideen may have carried out the blasts in Varanasi and Delhi,while the youths in Kishtwar were used only for sending the email after the Delhi blast.

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The NIA has asked for help from the UP ATS because it had worked on the suspects in the Varanasi blast,who hailed from UP and Bihar. However,none of them has so far been arrested. Top government sources indicated on Wednesday that investigators were close to cracking the December 2010 case.

The ATS team,led by Additional SP Rajesh Kumar Pandey,comprises an inspector,sub-inspector and constables. The team will camp in Noida and coordinate with the NIA.

An official said that after the Varanasi blast,the ATS had obtained a video showing a man planting the explosive device at Varanasi ghat. The video,which was shot by a tourist,showed a youth carrying a bag walking up the stairs and leaving after putting down the bag.

The video was shot about 45 minutes before the blast on the evening of December 7 last year. Two persons were killed in the blast.

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The investigating agencies got another clue when they examined the cellphone traffic in the area. They came across a cellphone number which was used only for making one and receiving two calls from Mumbai before the blast,and then went dead.

It was found that the SIM card had been purachased on fake identity papers from a shop in Mau. The shopowner provided the photo of the man to investigators,but he is yet to be traced.

Meanwhile,an NIA court in Delhi sent Aamir Abbas,one of the Kishtwar teenagers arrested for allegedly sending the email which claimed responsibility for the Delhi High Court blast,to judicial custody. The NIA claimed he was one of those who carried out the September 7 attack. He (Aamir) is one of the terrorists who conducted the bomb blast between gates number 4 and 5 of the Delhi High Court. He is one of the conspirators and needs to be interrogated thoroughly to trace their complicity in this terrorist crime. Other associates are also involved in this terrorist crime and conspiracy, the NIA said in its application.

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