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Seyed Ali Sadr Mahdian, one of the three men against whom warrants have been issued for their alleged involvement in the February 13 attack on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi, had been issued a visa for Thailand in April last year.

This was around the time that Houshang Afshar Irani, who is suspected to have attached the bomb to the Israel embassy vehicle, came to Delhi to buy a Scooty and conduct a recce, a police officer said on Wednesday.

This reinforces the belief that the attacks in India and Thailand were planned simultaneously for execution by the same Iranian module, the officer said.

Investigators in Delhi have obtained a copy of the visa granted to Mahdian by the Royal Thai Embassy in Tehran on April 12, 2011. Mahdian was issued a one-month visa for Delhi on July 6, 2011.

Irani bought a Scooty in April 2011 from a Karol Bagh dealer and handed over a copy of his passport as proof of identity. The officer said Irani returned to Delhi in January this year for a reconnaissance of the embassy area with Urdu journalist Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi who is currently in police custody.

“We have found some phone numbers in an Iranian SIM card recovered from Kazmi. He was in regular touch with these people. We are getting these numbers checked,” the officer said.

Hours after the sticky bomb explosion, Irani left for Malaysia from the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Mahdian and Abolghasemi Mohammad Reza, the third sus... >>>