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Investigators on Thursday detained five people including a cybercafe owner in Jammu and Kashmir and questioned another hailing from Bihar as they groped for definite leads into the briefcase bomb blast outside Delhi high court which has left 13 dead.
After Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami claimed responsibility for Wednesday's terror attack, Indian Mujahideen in an email to media houses purportedly sent by the group made a similar claim perplexing probe agencies which did not rule out a prank. IM claimed HuJI had no role to play in the blast.
Investigators traced Wednesday's email of Bangladesh-based terror outfit HuJI to a cybercafe in Kishtwar in J and K and detained for questioning its owner Mehmood Khawja, his brother Majid, their domestic help Ashwani and two others.
The death toll in the blast that ripped through the reception complex meanwhile rose to 13. Pramod Kumar, 40, a resident of west Delhi's Hari Nagar, breathed his last around 3 am, while P Patra, 58, a resident of South Delhi's
Lodhi Colony died at 8.30 pm at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, hospital, police officials said.
The Delhi high court decided to beef up its security by installing 49 more CCTV cameras, besides the existing 21, at various strategic locations in and around the court premises within three weeks.
"We are investigating the email link from Kishtwar district in connection with the Delhi blast," J&K Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda said in Jammu.
The mail from IM was purportedly written by "Chotoo" and sent from "chotoominani5@gmail.com". The mail was received by media houses at 12:37 pm on Thursday.
"We are examining the email received by media houses about its authenticity and veracity and (we are) taking it seriously," secretary (internal security) in the home ministry U K Bansal told reporters.
Bansal also said that some information indicating a Kashmir link with Wednesday's HuJI mail are being pursued with the help of J and K police.
Security agencies including National Investigation Agency are also looking into the IM email but serious apprehensions were being raised whether this was a genuine mail or a prank being played by somebody.
NIA also announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for anyone providing clues to the blast. A man from Patna who was arrested on charges of using a stolen ATM card, is being interrogated by the joint team led by NIA here in connection with the blast probe.
Another person was detained at the Srinagar airport on his return from New Delhi following an input received from a defence intelligence agency about a conversation he had made on September 5.
The man had spoken to his brother in the national capital and stated that the work would be done by 11 am on September 7 and that he was reaching on September 6 and returning on September 8 after finishing the work, official sources said.
They said the conversation was picked up by a defence intelligence agency who informed the central security agencies after the Delhi blast.