Phone from Tihar seized; Delhi govt seeks report from prison authorities
New Delhi: As the low-intensity blast outside the Israel Embassy here and bomb scar outside billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence in Mumbai are seemingly linked by investigators to an outfit known as Jaish-Ul Hind, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police have now recovered a mobile phone from one convict lodged inside Tihar jail, suspecting that the number was used to claim credit for the Ambani house scare on a Telegram channel with officials probing whether the same man might be linked to the blast outside the Israel Embassy here.
The Delhi government has now also sought a report from the Director-General of Tihar prisons regarding the seizure of the mobile phone from Tihar.
Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain told reporters that a probe has been ordered into the matter and action will be taken against anyone found to be at fault. Jain has also written to the DG (Prisons) in this regard and sought a report about seizure of a mobile phone from the jail.
On Thursday, a senior Mumbai Police official said a Telegram channel through which an organisation named Jaish-ul-Hind had claimed responsibility for placing an explosives-laden SUV near industrialist Ambani's residence in Mumbai last month was "created in the Tihar" area of Delhi.
Delhi Police on Friday said "Tihar Jail authorities have seized a mobile phone which is suspected to have been used for operating a Telegram channel used to claim responsibility for terror acts/ threats." They added, "Further investigation and forensic analysis will be done after the mobile handset and details of the seizure are received from Tihar Jail authorities."
A senior police official said, so far there is no arrest and further investigation is going on in the case. The forensic analysis will be done after the mobile handset and details of the seizure are received from Tihar Jail authorities.
It is being probed whether the Telegram channel was created on February 26 and the message claiming responsibility for placing the vehicle
outside Ambani's residence was posted on the Telegram messaging app late in the night on February 27.
The message had also demanded payment in cryptocurrency and mentioned a link to deposit the same. During the probe, the link was found as "not available", due to
which the investigators suspected it to be mischievous, the official said.
On February 28, another message from Jaish-ul-Hind surfaced on a social media platform, claiming that the organisation did not have any role in the incident.
The investigation in the case was initially conducted by the Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police and transferred to the Maharashtra ATS after the Thane-based owner of the suspect vehicle was mysteriously found dead.
On Monday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case related to the recovery of the explosives-laden vehicle. with pti inputs
