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The car that exploded on an arterial road near Red Fort in Delhi on Monday evening has been traced to a Kashmir-based doctor with ties to a terror module linked to the seizure of a huge cache of explosive material in Faridabad, two officers from Delhi Police’s Special Cell said on Tuesday.
The doctor, identified as Umar Un Nabi from Pulwama, was in contact with two other doctors from Jammu and Kashmir arrested recently and was probably driving the white Hyundai i20 car when it exploded after slowing down near a red light, these officers said on condition of anonymity. The explosion engulfed nearby vehicles and left thirteen people dead and 21 inured.
Delhi Police on Tuesday said it has registered a first information report (FIR) to investigate the case under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act that deal with terrorism, sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on murder and attempt to murder, and the Explosives Act.
Also Read: Delhi Red Fort Blast Live Updates: Driver of i20 car seen on CCTV; security increased across capital
The links between Monday’s explosion and the Faridabad module were discovered in the course of investigations into the ownership of the i20.
“It was a long trail before we reached him (Umar). The car was registered in the name of a man named Salman who revealed he sold it to a man named Devender. Devender was picked up and he said he sold it to a man named Taariq. While we were looking for Taariq, we found that the car was last with Umar. We were searching for him and then found that he was inside the i20 at the time of the attack. We also found that he works in the same module as his doctor friends – Muzammil Shakil and Adil Ahmed- who were caught,” said one of the officers.
The second officer said, “Yes, as per our initial probe, Umar was driving the car and is probably dead. We are checking with the doctors at the mortuary. He planned all this and executed this after his friends got arrested. We have confirmation of their link from the Jammu and Kashmir police as well. They have identified Umar.”
Investigators said the i20, with the registration number HR26CE7674 and three occupants, had been parked in a nearby parking lot around 4pm. “It was being driven on the Chhata Rail Chowk before taking a U-turn and moving towards Lower Subhash Marg. The CCTV footage shows that the car was approaching a signal and had slowed down when the explosion occurred,” said an officer aware of the matter. Police put the time of the blast at 6:52 pm.
An officer familiar with the matter had told HT that one possibility being probed is whether the explosion could have been caused by a device that was being transported going off accidentally. The high temperatures caused by the explosion suggested ammonia gel or a similar explosive, this officer added. Initial suspicions were that the explosion was caused by the CNG tank of the car rupturing.
Raids in Faridabad that followed the arrest of the two Kashmir doctors had unearthed around 2,900 kg of ammonium nitrate and other materials that could be used to make bombs, officers had said earlier on Monday.
The crackdown by Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana Police as well as central investigative agencies stemmed from an investigation launched in October after multiple posters of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH) were found pasted in Bunpora, Nowgam (Srinagar), threatening security personnel and calling for anti-India activities. Police said their investigations first led to Ahmed, who was arrested from Sharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Shakil, a fourth year MBBS student at a college in Faridabad, was then arrested from Pulwama in Kashmir. Their interrogation led to multiple seizures of explosives and arms, including automatic rifles, from Dhauj and Fatehpur Taga villages in Faridabad, officers said.
Besides the doctors, five others, including a cleric, have been arrested in the raids.
