An initial assessment of the blast site near the Red Fort in Delhi indicated the suspects may have panicked and made a mistake while carrying the explosives, top intelligence sources told NDTV today.
The raids on terror suspects across the country for the most part of the day on Monday, and the recovery of 2,900 kg of chemical used in bomb-making in Haryana’s Faridabad may have triggered a panic situation for the suspects and compelled them to relocate, the sources said.
This development is significant because it changes the case from a suspected suicide attack to an accidental explosion during transport, investigators said.
The suspect appeared to have assembled the improvised explosive device (IED) improperly, the intelligence sources told NDTV after their initial assessment. Due to this, the IED had a limited impact, they said.
The blast in a Hyundai i20 car killed nine and injured nearly two dozen people. Eyewitnesses said the shockwave from the massive explosion shook some buildings near the Red Fort in Chandni Chowk, one of the most crowded places in the national capital.
More initial evidence that indicated an accidental explosion while the suspects drove through the traffic carrying the IED include no blast crater formation and absence of projectiles at the site.
Investigators believe the suspects in a panic could not arm the IED for maximum damage.
The i20 had been crawling through bumper-to-bumper traffic when it exploded, and the vehicle being in motion may have done something to the IED, sources said, adding this angle also supports the accidental detonation theory.
Top intelligence sources have not ruled out the explosion happened when the suspects tried to relocate or get rid of the explosives.
The raids by the police and other agencies on sleeper terror units across the country and their coordinated crackdown definitely helped in containing a wider threat, sources said.
The key suspect who drove the white Hyundai i20 has been identified as Umar Nabi, a doctor from Jammu and Kashmir. Three days earlier from the day of the blast, he switched off his phone and went underground, cutting off communications even from his family.
The other suspects including those who were arrested before Monday are doctors – a kind of facade to hide their real activities since doctors would not easily come under suspicion on an average day.