Acting on inputs from intelligence agencies, authorities conducted a raid inside Tihar Jail’s high security ward late on Thursday evening and recovered a smartphone from the cell where an Indian Mujahideen terrorist is lodged.
A senior police officer said on Friday that the phone is suspected to have been used for operating a Telegram channel by Jaish-ul-Hind that has claimed responsibility for placing an explosives-laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence and for the blast outside Israel embassy in New Delhi.
Pramod Singh Kushwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) said further investigation and forensic analysis is on. The jail authorities have handed over the mobile phone to Delhi police.
The senior police officer confirmed that the phone was recovered from high security ward no. 8 where the terrorist Tehseen Akhtar is lodged. Akhtar was arrested in 2014 for his alleged involvement in a series of blasts, including the one in Patna targeting Narendra Modi’s rally in 2014. Police will seek production warrant for Akhtar to get more details and find out what his motive was behind forming the ‘Jaish-ul-Hind’ group that exists only on Telegarm. Investigators have found no trace of funding or links with other terror groups.
Home Minister Satyendar Jain said on Friday that the government had ordered a probe. “We have written to the DG to investigate how the phone was found inside the jail,” he said.
The senior officer called the failure to detect a smart phone operating inside the high security ward a serious security lapse.
“The high security ward contains cells that house high risk inmates. The ward remains under round-the-clock CCTV surveillance and is guarded by armed police personnel. And there is no power socket inside the cells. It is definitely a job of an insider, who was providing logistics to the inmates. Why were the visitors to see the high risk inmates not tracked? The jammers inside the jails are outdated and are of no use,” said an officer with the Tihar prison.
Tihar connection to the Ambani bomb scare case was detected after intelligence agencies informed the Delhi police about the activities of a group called ‘Jaish-ul-Hind’ operating from the jail.
