NIA TAKES OVER INVESTIGATION INTO BLAST NEAR ISRAEL EMBASSY

The Centre on Tuesday handed over the investigation into last week’s blast near the Israeli embassy in Delhi to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in view of a suspected Iranian link and the international ramifications of the case, officials said.

Officials said the central antiterror probe agency will form a special team to probe the case. NIA sleuths will also coordinate with Israeli agencies, including Mossad, to get inputs on the outfit behind the attack, which has been termed as a terrorist act.

A low-intensity blast was reported outside the Israeli embassy in the VVIP zone at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Marg on January 29. Over the last few days, the Delhi Police and the NIA investigators, who were informally associated with the probe till now, have collected information about some social media channels, including a Telegram entity which claimed responsibility for the blast on behalf of a group called ‘Jaish ul Hind’.