ARPIT PARASHAR, SANJAY SINGH & Nitin Mahajan

SAHIBABAD, LUCKNOW, Jaipur, MAY 15: An email sent on behalf of a terror group claiming responsibility for the Jaipur blasts was traced to a cyber cafe in Sahibabad area of Ghaziabad and its owners were detained early today though Rajasthan police said they had doubts about the authenticity of a supporting video clip and were trying to verify.

In Jaipur, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje voiced doubts about the the genuineness of the video clip — it showed a bicycle with an alleged bomb strapped to it and parked in a crowded market — saying it could be an attempt to mislead investigations.

A previously unknown militant outfit calling itself Indian Mujahideen, in an email and video clip sent last night to some TV channels, claimed responsibility for the blasts in Jaipur.

The email gave a frame number (129489) of the bicycle which was planted at Chhoti Chaupad near Kotwali in Jaipur and warned of more such attacks in the country.

But IGP (Jaipur Range) Pankaj Kumar Singh said that the clip may have been the handiwork of mischievous elements.

“We studied the clip in detail and found several contradictions in the claims made through the email. The clip shows a blue bag on the bicycle. But the bag we recovered from the spot of a bomb that was defused was khaki in colour and of a different make. There is another discrepancy: the clip shows the bag tied to the carrier of the bicycle but in all the blasts, bags were tied to handles of the bicycles,” he said.

Though he said the clip may be an attempt to “mislead” police, Singh said a team had been sent to Sahibabad to question the detained cyber cafe owners.

Siyaram Mishra and his son Madhukar Mishra, owners of the Naveen Job Work and Photostat at A-37, Shyam Park Extension, were detained by the UP Special Task Force and Anti-Terrorist Squad around 2 am and 10-12 computers were confiscated.

In Lucknow, Addl DGP (Law and Order) Brij Lal said both men were “co-operating” with the investigators. “They are not accused in the case. We want to collect information about those who used the cyber cafe to send the mail,” he told The Indian Express.

Sources in the UP police said they had been told about a couple who visited the cyber cafe with a CD. “Perhaps it was the same couple that sent the email. They were not known to be regular visitors at the cyber cafe,” the sources said.

Ghaziabad police said they would be charging the Mishras with failure to keep records and identity proof of people who used the cafe — orders to that effect had been issued six months ago to all cyber cafe owners. Citing negligence, Ghaziabad SSP Deepak Ratan has removed Karan Gate Chowki in-charge Jagroshan Singh from the post.

Family members of the cyber cafe owners said a dozen policemen in plain clothes had raided the house and the cafe. Nira Mishra, wife of Siyaram Mishra, said: “They were shown a few photographs and then told to accompany them. We have not been told about the place they were taken to.”

BOX: Bomb wrapped in April 4 Jaipur daily

JAIPUR: A bomb defused after the eight serial blasts in Jaipur had been wrapped in a local newspaper dated April 4, strengthening police suspicions that those who carried out the attack had been in the city for a while, preparing for the strike. Official sources told The Indian Express that the ninth bomb was wrapped in a sheet of the Daily News, published from Jaipur. The city police have detained 25 Bangladeshis for questioning, the majority from the Musafir Khana locality, not far from the walled city where the blasts took place.

editor@expressindia.com