Red Fort blast: Car parked at nearby lot for about 2 hours, cops say

CCTV footage shows the car’s two-hour halt near Red Fort before the blast; forensic teams from NSG and FSL are examining debris for traces of explosives.

The Hyundai i20 believed to have triggered Monday’s deadly blast near the Red Fort was parked for nearly two hours at a lot adjacent to the monument before it exploded while moving slowly on Netaji Subhash Marg, investigators familiar with the initial probe said on Monday.

Mangled remains of the vehicles at the site. (Sanjeev Verma/HT)

Investigators working on the blast, who asked not to be identified, said they used CCTV footage to trace the car’s movement in the final few hours in the build-up to the deadly explosion. They said the footage shows the car, with three occupants, heading from the Daryaganj Market towards the Sunehri Masjid parking lot beside the Red Fort on Shantivan Marg around 4pm.

About two hours later, it was seen leaving the parking lot, taking a U-turn near Old Delhi Railway Station, and proceeding towards Lower Subhash Marg.

“It was being driven on the Chhata Rail Chowk stretch before taking a U-turn and moving towards Lower Subhash Marg. The footage shows the car slowing down at a signal when the explosion occurred,” said an officer aware of the investigation. All three occupants were killed instantly.

Blast near Red Fort: What we know

The car bore a Haryana registration number and was last registered to a man in Gurugram, but had changed hands several times in recent weeks, another investigator said.

A copy of the registration certificate (RC), accessed by HT, showed the car HR26CE7674was first registered in 2014 to “Mohd Salman,” a resident of Shanti Nagar in Gurugram.

Investigators said Salman sold the vehicle to a man identified as “Devender,” who later sold it to someone in Ambala, Haryana. “The registered owner has been detained in Delhi, but the vehicle was resold two to three times. We are tracing the current owner,” an officer at the blast site said.

Police have not identified the most recent buyer. Ambala Police have launched a parallel inquiry, while Gurugram Police are assisting other investigating agencies.

Investigators are also looking into reports that a Maruti Eeco van near the i20 at the time of the blast was severely damaged and its occupants either killed or critically injured.

Police initially focussed on determining whether the explosion originated from a “cylinder-type device” inside the car. The RC lists the i20 as a petrol-CNG model, but investigators are probing whether the CNG kit was retrofitted or factory-installed.

Officials added that they are also investigating if the source of the blast was an incendiary device that went off prematurely before it was transported to its intended target.

“There were no nails, splinters, shrapnel, wires, or traces of chemicals typically found in improvised explosive devices (IEDs). It doesn’t appear to be a conventional terror blast,” said an officer from Delhi Police’s Special Cell. “However, the impact was unusually powerful, so we cannot rule out any possibility yet. It could be accidental—or deliberate. Given recent incidents in Faridabad, every angle is being examined.”

Teams from the National Security Guard (NSG), Special Cell, and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) collected samples from the site late into the night. The area around Subhash Marg remains cordoned off as forensic experts analyse debris and residue to determine the exact cause of the explosion.