Putting all the speculations to rest, the Visakhapatnam district police in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday said the five persons who had visited Bhubaneswar on Monday night and fled a city-based hotel mysteriously and later detained on the suspicion of being terrorists in Vizag were tourists from Iran.
The Visakhapatnam police said they had entered the country with valid documents.
Visakhapatnam Superintendent of Police (Rural) Koya Praveen said the group comprised two couples and a 20-year-old youth. All of them had valid documents like visa, passport and immigration certificate.
“They were detained on Wednesday night following an alert of the Odisha police at a check-post at Nakappalli in Visakhapatnam and were allowed to leave on Thursday after due probe. The scrutiny of documents and verification with the Indian embassy in Iran confirmed that they were tourists and had visited India twice before,” the SP told reporters.
After interrogation the team was allowed to visit Bengaluru.
According to sources, the group has come to India on a 45-day tourist visa. Reaching India in the last week of December, the group visited Delhi, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata and reached Bhubaneswar on January 25.
They had gone Hotel Arya Mahal for stay. As the hotel staff asked them for identity proof and passports, they all fled in a car.
Meanwhile, a team of Odisha police too came here and was satisfied about their credentials, the SP said.
Meanwhile, the Bargarh district police too have released the three Iranian nationals after thorough verification of their documents.