By IANS,
New Delhi: India has asked Interpol to issue a Red Corner notice for the three Iranians suspected to be behind last month’s terror attack on an Israeli embassy car, Delhi Police chief B.K. Gupta said here Friday.
A Delhi court has issued non-bailable arrest warrants against the three Iranians, one of whom has links with the main accused in the Feb 14 Bangkok blast.
Gupta here told reporters Friday that the process for issuing the Red Corner notice has been initiated for the three Iranians – Houshang Afshar Irani, Seyed Ali Mahdiansadr, Mohammadreza Abolghasemi – all in their late 30s.
“The notice will be issued within two days against the Iranians,” said Gupta.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ashok Chand said that Irani, the man who stuck the explosive on the Israeli embassy car on Feb 13, had left the city on the same day for Malaysia, while the other two had left the city two days before the blast.
Irani, who had come twice to Delhi, was in touch with Sedaghatzadeh Masoud, the operational head in the Feb 14 Bangkok blast, who was arrested from Malaysia the next day after the arrest of his associates Moradi Saeid and Mohammed Khazaei in the same blast case.
The information was revealed by arrested Indian journalist Sayed Mohammed Ahmed Kazmi, 52, who was arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police on March 6 in south Delhi’s Lodhi Road area.
“Kazmi went to Iran twice in 2011 and met Mahdiansadr and Abolghasemi, who asked him to provide assistance in India to their associates when required. He was paid a sum of $5,500,” said Gupta.
Kazmi revealed that he and his wife have been receiving foreign remittances regularly, said Gupta, adding till date his wife has received Rs.18,78,500, while he has received Rs.3,80,000.
According to Gupta, a written document has been sent to Director of Enforcement and Financial Investigation Unit for probing the source of foreign remittances.
Kazmi also informed that at the instance of Mahdiansadr he met Irani on his Delhi visit in 2011 and they recceed the Israeli embassy and its surrounding areas with a scooty purchased by Irani from a Karol Bagh dealer.
He was in regular touch with the bombers for the past one year by telephone, added Gupta.
Kazmi gave his Alto car to the Iranians, who had arrived in India just 15 days before the blast on tourist visas, for recce of routes used by the Israeli diplomats.
A return flight ticket of one of the accused booked by Kazmi, $1,250 in cash, the scooty bought by Irani, and one passport were recovered from Kazmi’s residence. Police have been examining two mobiles – one with an Iranian SIM and the other with an Indian SIM.
On Feb 13, four people were injured when an Israeli embassy car was struck by a bomb near the Israeli embassy in the New Delhi.
Tal Yehoshua Koren, wife of the Israeli defence attache, suffered multiple injuries when a motorcycle rider attached a magnetic explosive device to her car and sped away. Within seconds, the device exploded with a thunderous sound, setting the car on fire.