An Indian court issued on Saturday an arrest warrant against another Iranian suspect in an attack last month on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi, a report said.
Israel has accused Iran of masterminding the attack. But India has held back from blaming traditional ally Tehran although the Indian police’s probe appears to be focused on Iranian nationals and those with ties to the Islamic Republic. Delhi Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav issued the warrant against Masod Sedaghatzadeh, an Iranian who has been detained in Malaysia, after police alleged he was also involved in the Delhi blast conspiracy, the Press Trust of India said. “You (police) are hereby directed to arrest him,” Yadav was quoted by the news agency as saying.
The warrant was issued a day after Indian police said arrest warrants were being drawn up for three men of Iranian origin identified as suspects in the New Delhi attack that severely injured the Israeli diplomat. Delhi police commissioner Brijesh Kumar Gupta also said Friday investigations had established a clear link between the February 13 attack and a similar alleged plot targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok. Gupta said the arrest warrants would be issued soon against the three suspects named as Houshang Ashfar Irani, Sayed Ali Sadr Mehdian and Abolghasemi Mohammad Reza. They are all now believed to be in Iran, police said. In the Delhi attack, a hitman on a motorbike attached a magnetic bomb to the back of an Israeli embassy car carrying the 42-year-old diplomat, who was also the wife of the defence attache at the embassy.
Last week, a veteran Indian freelance journalist called Syed Mohammed Kazmi who worked part-time for Iran’s news agency IRNA became the first person to be arrested in connection with the attack. Gupta said interrogation of Kazmi, who denies involvement, had led to the “unravelling of the conspiracy.” The Delhi bombing came on the same day as another attempted attack on an Israeli embassy car in Georgia. Thai police have arrested two Iranian men in Bangkok who are suspected of planning the separate attack on Israeli diplomats.
Delhi police commissioner Gupta said one of the three named in the Delhi attack, Irani, had been in touch with Sedaghatzadeh, “thus establishing his links with the terror module in Bangkok.” Malaysian authorities have taken steps to extradite Sedaghatzadeh to face trial in connection with the alleged foiled Bangkok plot.
