Israeli embassy car bombing has foreign links: Police

The conspiracy behind the Feb 13 Israeli embassy car bombing here has an international link, Delhi Police told a city court Thursday while seeking additional time for the probe.

The links of "the conspiracy were not confined to Indian territory but these were found spreading abroad", the police told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav.

According to sources, police told the court that they were collecting information about Iranian suspect Houshang Afshar Irani.

Police claimed Irani was in contact with apprehended journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi and had links to a similar blast in an official Israeli vehicle in Tbilisi in Georgia that also took place Feb 13, sources said.

The sources said that investigators claimed that Irani was in contact with Kazmi and the Georgia bombers.

Police claimed that information regarding call details related to suspects, including Irani, were required to be obtained from Georgia, Thailand, Malaysia and Iran, they said.

The probe in the case revealed that some suspects arrested from Malaysia had been in touch with alleged terrorist Irani, the sources said.

Irani had visited India twice. In his last visit, from Jan 29 to Feb 13, Irani stayed in a hotel at Karol Bagh in central Delhi, the police are believed to have told the court.

Police claimed they recovered an explosive device from the ceiling of Irani's room in the hotel. The device was similar to the bomb used in the Feb 13 Israeli embassy car bombing, the sources said.

Kazmi was arrested March 6 for his alleged involvement in the bombing.

Four people were injured when an Israeli embassy car was struck by a bomb. Tal Yehoshua Koren, 42, wife of Israeli defence attache Colonel Yossi Refaelov, suffered multiple injuries when a motorcycle rider attached a magnetic explosive device to her car and sped away.