Delhi HC blast: NIA recovers 3 mobiles; expects breakthrough

National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the Delhi High Court blast, today claimed to have made some headway in the investigation into the case as it recovered three mobile phones and some documents related to exchange of money as indications have surfaced about the involvement of Jaish-e-Mohammed in the terror attack.

An NIA team flew in to Jammu in a special BSF plane along with Wasim Ahmed Malik, a medical student who was arrested from Bangladesh, and carried out a search operation at his Jammu residence and recovered his mobile phones from there, sources privy to the probe said here.

Later, they flew to Kishtwar in a helicopter and recovered another mobile phone besides some more documents from the residence of Malik, who along with his brother Junaid Akram Malik are emerging as prime suspects in the case, the sources said.

Wasim is alleged to have named the two people who purportedly planted the bomb outside the high court on September seven that left 15 people dead and over 80 injured.

The NIA team headed by an additional superintendent of police has been camping in the city and have brought in Close Circuit Television (CCTV) footage of Jammu and Kashmir Bank's ATM from where he had withdrawn the cash a day before and after the blast, the sources said.

There were big financial transactions in his account. Investigators suspect that that he might have been accompanied by two bombers while withdrawing of cash.

Surprisingly, the two people named by Wasim are said to have links with Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit, the sources said, adding a massive manhunt has been launched to nab them.

NIA has also sought assistance from Bangladesh Police about the source of money transactions made into the account of Wasim who has been studying in a medical college at Shylet, 200km northeast of Dhaka, for the last five years.

Wasim's family has been crying foul about their arrest. The family members said they had no role to play in the blast.

The father of the duo Reyaz Malik has been maintaining that NIA stories were nothing but a bunch of lies being spread about his sons.

Recalling the incident about Junaid, he said his son had gone missing last year in August after appearing in his matriculation exams and said that his date of birth was May five, 1995.

He also said it was surprising that while they had lodged an FIR about him going missing in Kishtwar police station, his son was being labelled as a terrorist.

He alleged that it was an act of vengeance orchestrated by Hizb conduit Azhar Ali, whose family had been their tenant in Kishtwar.

Information about Malik was given by Azhar Ali, an overground worker of Hizb, who is in Kotbalwal Jail in Jammu since 2009 after the NIA team had questioned him for alleged involvement in recruiting people from Kishtwar area besides securing SIM cards for the outfit.

This was to know about some of the youths, including Akram, whom he had allegedly sent for training to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, the sources said.

NIA has arrested Abid Abbas, a high school boy, on charges of having sent an email after the Delhi High Court blast.

The probe agency had detained Abbas' brother from Shillong who expressed complete ignorance about the matter.

Besides Abbas and Malik, the NIA has arrested Hafiz Aamir Abbas Dev, another Kishtwar resident, who is alleged to have helped in drafting the email.

A cyber forensic examination of email account of Malik was being carried out to know the flow of mails and the NIA fears that he had allegedly destroyed a laptop which contained sensitive information pertaining to the case.