Four of the 10 persons detained for their alleged links with an “Islamic State-inspired jihadist cell”, which Delhi Police claimed to have busted earlier this week, were released Saturday after being questioned for over 72 hours.
The four, including a 17-year-old boy, were released after police failed to get concrete evidence against them, said sources.
Late on Tuesday, police had picked up 13 men from their homes in east Delhi’s Chand Bagh area and Loni in Ghaziabad, and arrested three of them — Sajid, Sameer and Shakir. In an official statement after the arrests, Delhi Police had said, “suspects/ probable sympathisers of the terrorist group have been rounded up and are being questioned”.
A police officer said Saturday, “Of the four men, three are residents of Chand Bagh locality while the fourth hails from Ghaziabad’s Loni area. They were detained for their alleged ideological leaning towards Jaish-e-Mohammad”.
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Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Arvind Deep said during questioning, the men had revealed that they were angry with the system, which made them vulnerable targets for terror groups looking for new recruits.
“The four men have been asked to visit a psychologist regularly. He will provide us with a report on their progress,” he said.
Delhi Police have also approached the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the government nodal agency that deals with cyber security threats. Police have sought its help in decoding encrypted messages and online conversations between the suspects.