Chidambaram: leads promising but not very conclusive

Clues being pursued round the clock by crack investigators

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram addresses a press conference in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Even as investigators are busy piecing together evidence gathered over the past 48 hours from the site of the high intensity bomb blast in the Delhi High Court complex, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said there were some “promising leads” but “not very conclusive.”

Wednesday's blast claimed 13 lives.

Meanwhile, a third email reportedly sent by the Indian Mujahideen terror group was received by the Delhi Police. Mr. Chidambaram said that it appeared “very amateurish'' and cyber security experts had decoded it as stating in coded numericals that Ahmedabad could be the next target. Nevertheless, it was taken seriously and the Gujarat government was alerted.

“At this stage, it is very difficult to say anything definite. Every organisation is a suspect. All leads are being pursued round the clock by several teams of crack investigators. Help of other agencies from abroad is also being taken. Teams of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Delhi Police are coordinating with each other as well anti-terrorism squads of States,'' he said.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Chidambaram said the suspect who had sent the first email from a cyber café in Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir, hours after the blast, was detained. He said 20 teams of the NIA and 17 of the Delhi Police were working round the clock along with several teams of the State police forces.

Amid concerns about security in the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Mr. Chidambaram and Law Minister Salman Khursheed to call on Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia and take “urgent steps” to further strengthen the security.

The Home Minister appealed to the people to learn from societies in other parts of the world and report anything suspicious to the police. “India is too vast a country. We have recruited one lakh personnel in the Central paramilitary forces in the past one year. Another one lakh were recruited by the State police forces but still vacancy level stands at five to six lakhs. We are addressing the accumulated neglect of the past so many years,” he said.