Delhi Police team in Iran for probe into diplomat attack case

The team, cleared after an intense discussion between External Affairs Ministry and Delhi Police, has sought details about Houshang Afshar, alleged to be the bomber in the case, official sources said.

The sources said the External Affairs Ministry wanted some senior official to visit Tehran keeping in view the relations between the two countries, but Delhi Police stuck to its stand of sending the Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Yadav and Inspector Hriday Bhushan as they were the supervising and investigating officers respectively in the case.

Finally, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar had to step in and sort out the matter and Yadav and Bhushan were sent to Tehran along with the passport details of Afshar and other three Iranian nationals -- Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, Saeid Moradi and Mohammad Kharzei, the sources said.

The team was sent recently after Tehran conveyed its willingness to assist the Delhi Police in its probe after the alleged role of four Iranian nationals surfaced in the bombing that took place barely 500 metres from the high-security Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence.

Delhi Police has named Afshar as the main accused who had planted a bomb on the vehicle of Israeli diplomat Tal Yeshua on February 13 that left the diplomat injured.

The police team is also armed with the findings of the probe by Malaysian authorities, according to which Afshar, after fleeing from India on February 13, had taken a connecting flight to Tehran from Kaula Lumpur airport on the next day, the sources said. MORE