DCP cracked the case, Mukadam was clincher

Maria had led the team that tracked down Mukadam two days after the blasts. And it was Mukadam, absconding prime accused Tiger Memon's accountant, who revealed the entire plot and the names of the brains behind it.

According to police officers in Maria's team, on the day of the blasts, the Worli police had found found a red Maruti Van, with a cache of AK-56 rifles, ammunition and hand grenades. The Worli police had passed it off as belonging to gun-runners, who had probably abandoned it because of the blasts. They did trace its owner as Rubina Memon, a resident of Al-Hussaini building in Mahim, but after finding the house locked had left the trail there.

"On March 14, 1993, we informed Maria saab of an unclaimed scooter having been found at Naigaum. There was RDX in the scooter. Later in the day, we were summoned by Maria saab to the Mahim police station and asked about any unusual developments reported since the blasts,'' recalls a close aide of Maria.

When the policemen broke open the lock of Rubina's house and searched the place, Maria found a key, which was later found to be from the abandoned RDX-laden scooter.

Residents told the police that Rubina and the other Memons had left the building a few days before. And that they hadn't seen Tiger Memon since the day before the blasts.

Mukadam, the police found, worked for Tiger Memon. When they reached Mukadam's house at Andheri, he wasn't there. They finally tracked him down at his uncle's place and brought him to Mahim police station, where Maria grilled him.Mukadam sang, Maria's aide recalls.