Antilia Bomb: Phone Used To Create Telegram Group Of Jaish-ul-Hind Recovered From Tihar Jail

As the probe into the bomb scare outside Mukesh Ambani's house in Mumbai, last month continues, a mobile phone suspected to have been used for operating a Telegram channel to claim responsibility for a terror threat has been seized from Tihar Jail.

The phone was seized by the Delhi Police's Special Cell on Thursday in a raid.

PTI

What's happening

On Thursday, a senior Mumbai police official said a Telegram channel through which an organisation named Jaish-ul-Hind had claimed responsibility for placing an explosives-laden SUV near industrialist Ambani's residence in Mumbai last month was "created in the Tihar" area of Delhi.

The Delhi Police's Special Cell had approached the Tihar Jail administration on Thursday after the new angle emerged.

"Tihar Jail authorities have seized a mobile phone which is suspected to have been used for operating Telegram channel used to claim responsibility for terror acts/ threats," the Delhi Police said on Friday.

BCCL

"Based on information provided by the Special Cell, Tihar Jail authorities have seized a mobile phone from a jail where certain terror convicts are lodged. It is suspected that this phone has been used for operating Telegram channels used recently for claiming responsibility for terror acts/ threats," said Pramod Singh Kushwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell).

The officer said further investigation and forensic analysis will be done after the mobile handset and details of the seizure are received from Tihar Jail authorities.

How did Tihar angle came to light

The Tihar angle came to light after the Mumbai Police took the help of a private cyber agency to track the location of the phone on which the Telegram channel was created.

Meanwhile, Mumbai crime branch's Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze, who has been facing heat in the death case of Mansukh Hiran, the owner of the explosives-laden SUV has been transferred to the Citizen Facilitation Centre (CFC) unit of the city police.

BCCL

Hiran's wife had accused Vaze of having involvement in his suspicious death. In her statement before ATS, Hiran's wife had said that Vaze had been using the Scorpio car from November 2020 till February 5.

Vaze, who was involved in around 63 encounters, was suspended in 2004 for the alleged custodial death of Khwaja Yunus. He was reinstated in the service in June 2020 and was heading the CIU of Mumbai crime branch.

BCCL

On February 25, a Scorpio was found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's house in south Mumbai with explosives and a threat letter inside. Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV, had claimed that it had been stolen a week earlier, but the case got murky when he was found dead in a creek in Thane on March 5.