Man arrested in Delhi High Court blast case retracts statement

Kishtwar (J&K), Sep 18 (PTI) The National Investigation
Agency (NIA) has hit a fresh roadblock in its probe into the
Delhi High Court blast with a key person arrested in the case
retracting his earlier statement in which he had admitted to
his role in the terror attack.
Official sources said Amir Abbas Dev, one of the four
arrested in the case, has withdrawn his earlier "detailed
statement" about his role in the blast.
Dev is currently in police custody. Sources said even the
police were facing difficulty in corroborating his earlier
statement as there were many loopholes.
They said Dev has now denied any connection with the
blast. He is being questioned at length for his alleged role
in sending an e-mail barely two hours after the September 7
blast.
He is being interrogated by a joint team of interrogators
of J and K Police and the National Investigation Agency here,
250 kms from Jammu, in the north Indian state of Jammu and
Kashmir.
Dev is accused of handing over the draft mail three days
before the blast to two high school students.
Dev had earlier told the investigators that an e-mail
claiming responsibility on behalf of HuJI was sent on his
directions, the sources said.
He is alleged to have drafted the mail and then handed it
over to the two boys with the instruction that it was to be
mailed to media houses immediately after they hear about the
blasts in the national capital.
The two boys were the first to have been arrested by the
police for sending the mail.
As sleuths were still struggling for a breakthrough to
trace the main perpetrators of the September seven blast, the
sources said there was a possibility that the two could be
part of a larger conspiracy behind the terror strike.
Dev allegedly has links with a religious organisation and
was picked up after detailed interrogation of the two boys,
the sources said.
He is suspected to have been involved in brainwashing
youths to join militant ranks.
The NIA had rushed senior officers including DIG Mukesh
Singh after getting information about the Kishtwar connection
to the blast case.
The fourth arrested in the case was identified as Hilal
Amin.