Israel car bombing: India to seek formal help from 4 nations

NEW DELHI: With no word from Tehran yet, India is all set to send legal request letters to four nations including Iran seeking help in its probe into the bombing of an Israeli embassy's vehicle here in February.

Official sources said today that Letters Rogatory for Iran, Malaysia, Thailand and Georgia has been sent to Union Home Ministry for vetting after which it would sent to Legals and Treaty Division of Ministry of External Affairs to be sent to these respective countries.

The sources said Iran had been earlier requested through diplomatic channels for help in tracing Houshang Afshar, who had planted a bomb on the vehicle of Israeli diplomat Tal Yeshua on February 13 in the vicinity of high-security residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

However, in absence of any word from Iran, the Government decided to send a Letters Rogatory to Tehran so that it could furnish the same document before a court here which has given Delhi Police additional 90 days to file a chargesheet in the case. There has been one arrest so far in this case.

The phone book of Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, who was arrested by Malaysian police from Kuala Lumpur airport, led sleuths from external and internal security agencies to Indian journalist Syed Mohammed Ahmed Kazmi after which the entire conspiracy started opening up.

The second request is being sent to Malaysia for sharing all evidence and statement of Sedaghatzadeh, who had managed to flee from Bangkok on February 13 following a botched up plan to target Israeli nationals there, the sources said.