Red Fort blast: Two more Al Falah doctors, ‘friends’ with prime suspect Umar, being questioned

One of the two doctors who are being questioned belongs to Punhana town in Haryana’s Nuh district. Umar had spent time in Nuh before the blast, and had returned to Delhi only on the day of the incident.

Sources said one of the two doctors had done an MBBS course in China, and had recently completed his internship at Al Falah University.

The other doctor is currently doing an internship at the university.

“The one who hailed from Mewat was close friends with Umar, and the two had been in touch since the beginning of this year. They were also in touch with the accused already arrested by J&K Police for their alleged role in the November 10 blast,” a police source said.

The historical Mewat region corresponds to the present-day district of Nuh in Haryana. Umar had left the Al Falah campus after another doctor at the university, Muzammil Ganai, was picked up by Jammu & Kashmir Police on October 30, and had travelled to Nuh in the i20.

Another doctor at Al Falah university, Shaheen Shahid Ansari from Lucknow, was also picked up in the days before the blast.

Muzammil belongs to the same village as Umar – Koil in Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir – and the two men were believed to have been in touch since 2021.

Sources said on Thursday that DNA from an unidentified body found at the blast site had matched with that of Umar’s mother.

According to sources close to the investigation, the alleged plotters, including Umar, Muzammil, and Shaheen, accessed a common email ID, where they saved their communication as drafts in order to avoid leaving a digital trail.

The sources also said the accused used Threema, a paid cross-platform encrypted instant messaging application, which does not require a phone number or an email address for registration. The one-time purchase can be paid for anonymously with bitcoin or cash.

Faridabad Police are also carrying out deep background checks at Al Falah, a private university that was established by a charitable trust in 2014.

The district administration has initiated a detailed survey of land records, and is scrutinising the processes by which permissions for the university were granted, and the campus was constructed.