Tracking the car, hours before Red Fort explosion

The explosion occurred at about 6:52pm near Red Fort, killing at least 10 people and injuring over 20 others.

The white Hyundai i20 used in Monday evening’s blast was first spotted at a toll plaza in Haryana’s Mewat region around Sunday midnight and remained parked at Red Fort’s parking lot near Sunehri Masjid for over three hours before its lone occupant drove it for nearly 30 minutes to the blast site, Delhi Police officers assisting the National Investigation Agency said.

Mangled remains of the vehicles which got burnt in the explosion. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The car’s movements over nearly 17 hours before the blast were established by scanning CCTV cameras installed along the routes it covered, the officers said. The explosion occurred at about 6:52pm near Red Fort, killing at least 10 people and injuring over 20 others.

Officers said they have not found any evidence of a second person meeting the lone occupant, suspected to be Umar Un Nabi, at the parking lot where he parked the car between 3:19pm and 6:22pm on Monday.

People aware of the matter said Umar, a Faridabad-based doctor, had switched off his phone for the past two days and was on the run after his colleagues at the Al-Falah medical college and former colleagues at Government Medical College, Anantnag, were arrested by Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana police.

CCTV footage from inside the parking lot showed Umar did not meet anyone and mostly stayed inside the car during those three hours.

“He is seen coming out of his vehicle at different times and checking his mobile phone. But no one came to meet him during those three hours. It is also clear that he has not stepped outside the parking lot. We suspect he was waiting for instructions. This will be clear by checking the data records of his mobile phone. The teams are working on it,” an official said, asking not to be named.

In the vehicle was a black bag, an official said, that was spotted consistently since the morning. “It makes us believe that the explosives were inside the car right from the time it left Faridabad. The car was heavily damaged in the explosion and there was not a shred of the bag found,” a second officer said, asking not to be named.

A third officer, who requested anonymity, said Umar appeared to be panicking and moving around without speaking to anyone. “During the day, before he came to Daryaganj, he had gone to Connaught Place also. According to our probe, it looks like he was moving from one place to another without speaking to anyone. His phone was switched off the whole time,” the officer said.

This person added that circumstances suggest Umar chose to detonate the explosives near Red Fort out of desperation. “How he did is a matter of probe but it looks like he assembled whatever he could find since he already had the explosives and blew it. The explosive was high grade and he may have used fuel or something similar to cause a large explosion. But this is a theory we are working on,” the officer said.

After exiting the parking lot, the car used Shantivan Marg and reached Netaji Subhash Marg after taking a right turn from the Netaji Subhash Marg Cut traffic signal, CCTV footage showed. The car moved slowly towards Chandni Chowk due to heavy traffic during peak evening hours.

“The car reaches the Chatta Rail Cut traffic signal and takes a U-turn to reach the opposite carriageway of the Netaji Subhash Marg. The blast happened at around 6:52pm as it slowed down outside the Red Fort police post near Gate Number 1 of Lal Quila Metro station,” an officer said.

As they retraced the car’s drive, investigators obtained CCTV footage from multiple locations showing the car’s movements throughout Monday.

After being spotted at a toll plaza in Mewat around Sunday midnight, the car was next seen outside Asian Hospital in Faridabad at 7:25am, after which it moved towards Delhi via the Delhi-Mathura Road. The car was then seen at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi toll plaza in south Delhi’s Badarpur at 8:13am, and at a petrol pump in Kalkaji at 8:20am via the Modi Mill flyover. The car was then seen moving towards the Delhi Noida Direct flyway around 9am, an officer said.

“There is a blackout of about four-five hours. We suspect he went towards east Delhi as the car he was driving was earlier seen in east Delhi as well — days preceding the incident. It also appeared that he was well-versed with the routes in Delhi despite residing in Faridabad,” the officer said.

Around 2pm, the car was located near RK Ashram Marg Metro station and moving towards Connaught Place Outer Circle and further towards Minto Road. At 2:50pm, CCTV footage spotted the car moving from Daryaganj market near the Daryaganj police station. At 3:19pm, the car entered the Red Fort parking lot, officials said.

“The past 17 hours of the car’s trail is important to establish whom the suspect met before the explosion. Multiple teams from different district police units are tracking CCTV cameras along the route. Depending on the clarity of the CCTV footage, this will help investigators in establishing if there was a second person in the vehicle during the day,” the second officer said quoted above said.

Investigators said Umar obtained possession of the car on October 29 and they are tracing where it was used before and after that date. On October 29, Umar, along with two others, was found near a pollution checking station in Sector 37 in Faridabad. CCTV footage of the same has been recovered by Delhi Police.