Blast outside Red fort | 150 km in 7 hours: Following Umar’s trail as he waited for the moment

The Delhi Police has prepared a route map of the i20 by scanning more than 1,000 CCTV cameras along the around 150-km route from the Badarpur Toll Plaza to the Red Fort in North Delhi – covering areas such as Nizamuddin, Kartavya Path, Connaught Place, Dhaula Kuan, Pitampura and Jahangirpuri.

According to the CCTV footage, after entering Delhi from Nuh, Umar refueled his car at a petrol pump near Modi Mill. He also stopped for around 15 minutes near the Akshardham Temple, though he never stepped out of the car. At Jahangirpuri in Northwest Delhi, he had tea at a stall before heading to the Red Fort parking lot in the afternoon, hours before the blast. All this time, he was wearing a black mask.

The Delhi Police Special Cell, which is probing the deeper conspiracy angle behind the blast, suspects that Umar visited Delhi multiple times to conduct reconnaissance of crowded places where an explosion could be carried out.

According to a senior officer, the CCTV cameras traced the i20 car’s movement. “It took over a week to compile CCTV footage from 70 locations across Delhi,” the officer added.

Scrutiny of CCTV camera footage was carried out collectively by all district police units, as well as the Special Cell and the Crime Branch, officers said, adding that the local police also assisted in reviewing the footage.

During the probe, police have collected CCTV footage from Faridabad and Nuh, covering the period from when Umar had bought the car to when he parked it at Al Falah University in Faridabad, where he was employed as an assistant professor in the general medicine department.

According to CCTV footage, on October 29, after purchasing the i20 car, Umar and his aide Amir Rashid Ali – who was arrested by the NIA on Sunday – returned to the Al Falah University campus. Umar initially parked the car in the hostel area, and the next morning, around 7.30 am, moved it to the university’s common parking area.

On October 30, around 2.30 pm, Umar called a mechanic to inspect the car, and minutes later, the car was driven out of the campus through the main exit gate.

Police said that between October 30 and November 9, Umar stayed in Nuh out of fear of being caught, as the Jammu and Kashmir Police was conducting raids in connection with the suspected terror module. Officers said he stayed in a house that is currently under the scanner of security agencies.

At 11.43 pm on November 9, the CCTV cameras caught Umar’s car at the Khalilpur Toll Plaza on the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway. At 6.42 am on November 10, the car was captured again on CCTV cameras along the KMP section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.

Around 8 am, the i20 entered Delhi through the Badarpur Toll Plaza. Umar refueled at a petrol pump on NFC Road near Modi Mill, and at 8.31 am, his car was captured on CCTV cameras at Ashram Chowk. At 8.35 am, he took a turn toward the DND. From the DND, he headed towards Mayur Vihar, where he spent around 10 minutes inside the car.

He then took a left turn toward Sarai Kale Khan, and his car was seen near the Nizamuddin police station at 9.17 am. From there, he moved towards India Gate, Rail Bhawan and Kartavya Path, before proceeding towards West Delhi via Safdarjung Enclave and Ring Road.

From South Extension, his car was seen travelling near Dhaula Kuan. It then moved through Naraina, Rajouri Garden, Pitampura and Jahangirpuri, where he stopped at a tea shop around 12.30 pm. The vehicle later returned to Central Delhi, crossing Connaught Place at 2 pm, and via Barakhamba Road, it reached near Ramlila Maidan at 2.17 pm. There, he parked the car near the Faiz-e-Ilahi Masjid and stepped out. He spent around 15 minutes inside the mosque before moving towards the Red Fort parking area at 3.29 pm. He waited there for around three hours before travelling near the Red Fort traffic signal at 6.50 pm, when the car exploded.