A Delhi court on Friday granted 45 more days to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file a chargesheet in connection to the November 10 blast near the Red Fort, which has claimed 13 lives. The NIA had sought an extension of 90 days after three months of investigation.
The central agency has till date arrested nine people in connection with the case. As per NIA, all the arrested persons are connected to Umar Nabi, who drove the Hyundai i20 car that exploded near the Lal Qila Metro station.
“…during investigation, it was revealed that the deceased and the… accused persons along with other co-accused persons conspired with each other for propagating the Islamic ideologies of Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind (AGH) and collected arms and ammunitions and explosive materials in furtherance of their intention to commit terrorist act in various parts of India including Delhi,” the NIA has submitted recently before the court while seeking remand of the accused.
As part of the probe, the NIA said it has got disclosures, social media extractions, “seizures of incriminating materials” and voice samples of the accused.
“…based on their disclosures… coupled with extraction of data from their social media… after procuring duplicate SIMs earlier used by the accused… incriminating seizures and recoveries were made and these recoveries revealed the names of several suspects who were part of the larger conspiracy. Details of association and involvement of such suspects required to be discovered,” the agency submitted.
Seeking custodial interrogation of the accused in order to understand “code words” and other “incriminating material” that has surfaced, the NIA told the court, “The accused are required to be confronted with co-accused, suspects, and certain witnesses… who are believed to possess exclusive knowledge of facts and circumstances of the case… to carry out crime simulation and point out remaining places in J&K, UP and NCR… which have been revealed by witnesses.”
It also said it wanted to “identify additional associates/conspirators and trace the flow of communication and movements” linked to the case.
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The court also extended until March 13 the judicial custody of seven accused in the case.
The NIA said it is working closely with various state police forces to track those behind the blast. It is also tracking everyone Umar had contacted over the last few months before the blast. Umar is suspected to be the leader of a “white collar group” of doctors, a part of a terror module that was busted days before the Red Fort explosion.
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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