Leads on HC blast promising, but not conclusive: Chidambaram

Union home minister P Chidambaram on Friday said there were “promising leads” in the Delhi High Court bomb blast case. He, however, did not report any breakthrough in the case.

A young man, who was earlier taken into custody for sending the first email that claimed responsibility for the attack, had been interrogated and the report of the interrogation was awaited, the home minister said, adding the help of foreign agencies had also been sought in cracking the case.

Chidambaram said all citizens must work together with security forces, who work relentlessly to keep the country safe. He said the ordinary citizen had a responsibility, too, and should be more disciplined in whatever they do. He did not rule out a cross-border connection, saying, “at this moment, every organisation is suspect” and that he was “keeping fingers crossed till we have evidence”.

Addressing a press conference here, Chidambaram said a “strong” team of investigators, comprising specialised personnel from the National Investigative Agency (NIA) and the Delhi Police, were pursuing the case vigorously.

Rubbishing reports that he was heckled when he had gone to enquire about the Delhi blast victims in the hospitals, Chidambaram said, “I was at RML Hospital and was not heckled. The relatives of the injured were asking for information on various things. Arun Jaitley has been out of office for a long time. He does not know how people react in these situations.” He also said Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley was politicising terror strikes.

The bonhomie seen on the floor of the House on the last day of the monsoon session on the terror attacks lasted just a day. While speaking on yesterday's terror attack, Jaitley had said the BJP would support the government on everything it did to put an end to such attacks. However, on Friday, the BJP unleashed a scathing attack on the Union government, blaming the Congress Party for being soft on terror.

Senior BJP leaders blamed the government for the serial blasts in Mumbai before the Parliament session and the Delhi High Court blasts just before the Parliament session ended on September 8.