Probe tracks journey of car involved in Red Fort blast: Pulwama resident bought i20 last month

Hours after the blast, police had questioned a Gurgaon resident under whose name the car was once registered. The man is learnt to have told investigators that he had sold the vehicle to someone else, and police then began working with the Regional Transport Office (RTO) to trace the vehicle ownership.

Investigators said their probe led them to conclude the car changed hands more than once, eventually finding its way to the resident of Kashmir’s Pulwama.

Further, the preliminary investigation indicated that the car had been parked near the Red Fort for more than three hours before it was driven out.

According to sources, CCTV footage purportedly shows the vehicle entering a parking lot adjacent to the Red Fort at 3:19 pm and exiting at 6:48 pm on Monday. “CCTV footage shows that there was heavy traffic when the car left the parking lot,” a source said. The car was also spotted in Darya Ganj, Red Fort area, Kashmere Gate, and near Sunehri Masjid, sources said.

NSG commandoes, in their signature black overalls, arriving at the blast site. (Express Photo/Gajendra Yadav)

CCTV footage from the parking lot purportedly shows an individual in the driver’s seat collecting what appears to be a parking slip.

After the incident, Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha had said the car had multiple occupants. While the CCTV footage accessed by The Indian Express appears to show one individual, officials said they are probing whether or not anyone else joined him later.

Delhi Police said multiple teams from the Special Cell, Crime Branch, and the National Investigation Agency have also been tasked with tracing the vehicle’s route before it reached the parking lot. “We are analysing footage from nearby roads and toll barriers to map the full movement of the car,” said an officer.

Delhi CM Rekha Gupta has called the blast near the Red Fort “extremely distressing and alarming.” (Express Photo/Tashi Togyal)

The blast came a day after the Jammu and Kashmir police recovered nearly 350 kg of explosives from two residential buildings in Faridabad in Haryana. Delhi Police are probing whether the two developments have a link.