A court in New Delhi on Tuesday set aside a magisterial court order extending a probe into the bombing of an Israeli diplomatic car earlier this year saying the order was approved in a"reticent and clandestine manner.”
Setting aside the June 2 from chief metropolitan magistrate Vind Yadav to extend the probe by 90 days, Judge Surinder S Rathi said the accused – journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi – was not given any notice of the application by Delhi Police.
"The impugned order speaks for itself,” Rathi wrote. “It was passed in the most reticent manner because neither was the accused given any notice of the additional public prosecutor's report nor was he given the opportunity to defend the extension of investigation."
However, Rathi did give police the option of submitting a fresh report seeking extension of probe period within one week.
Rathi's order was in response to a petition filed by Kazmi.
Police arrested Kazmi, 50, in mid-March in connection with the bombing of an Israeli diplomatic car in February. He claims to have written for an Iranian news source.
Delhi police say Kazmi was not directly involved in the blast, but played an integral role in the conspiracy and could lead them to the bike-borne men who planted a magnetic bomb on the car of Tal Yehoshua Koren, wife of Israel's defense attaché in Delhi.
Yehoshua-Koren and her driver were among the four people injured in the blast, which Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu squarely blames on Iran and Hizbullah.
The Delhi bombing occurred on the same day as the averted bombing of an Israeli embassy car in Tbilisi, Georgia. The next day, on February 14, a botched bombing attempt by a group of Iranian nationals occurred in Bangkok.
Thai police, who have arrested three of the bombers, say Israeli diplomats were the target.