CCTV video and images have emerged showing the white Hyundai i20 car that exploded near the Red Fort on Monday evening, killing nine people and injuring 20 others. According to sources, the vehicle – with the number plate HR 26CE7674 – was parked in the parking lot near the fort for over three hours, entering at 3:19 pm and leaving around 6:30 pm.
A nearly one-minute clip shows the car entering the Badarpur border, with cops investigating the route, sources said.
A picture shows the car entering the parking lot with the suspected suicide bomber’s hand on the window.
The driver of the car can be seen in another picture in which he appears to be wearing a blue and black t-shirt.
A third picture shows the car on a busy road in the national capital.
Sources said that the suspected suicide bomber did not get out of the car even for a second when the car was parked. He was either waiting for someone or awaiting instructions in the parking lot, they said.
The blast took place at 6.52 near the Red Fort Metro Station, leaving mangled bodies and wrecked cars scattered in the busy area. Disturbing visuals showed bodies on the ground and severed body parts. Moments after the blast, a large number of security personnel filled the area, and ambulances carrying several injured people streamed into nearby Lok Nayak Hospital (LNJP).
The blast is being probed as a terror attack, with Delhi Police having invoked UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) sections after forensic evidence and intelligence inputs pointed to possible terror links. A high alert has also been sounded in Delhi and other nearby states – Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Haryana, Punjab, Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand are on high alert. Bihar, which is set to vote in the second and final round of polling today, is also on high alert.
The incident occurred on a day a massive haul of 2,900 kg of explosives was found just 50 km from the capital, in neighbouring Haryana’s Faridabad. Sources said that a link has emerged between the blast and the “white collar” terror module as the i20 car owned by a doctor from south Kashmir’s Pulwama – who was a part of the module.
Dr Umar Mohammad, who owned the car, reportedly panicked and triggered the blast near the Red Fort after investigators arrested two key members of the module – Dr Mujammil Shakeel and Dr Adil Rather – and the explosives, the sources said. Umar planned the attack with two more associates and planted a detonator in the car, sources said.
Ammonium nitrate, which was found in Faridabad, was used in the blast, sources added.