Red Fort blast | The i20 route: Was in Delhi for nearly 11 hrs, entered via Badarpur toll plaza

According to highly placed sources in the police forces of three states, the man driving the Hyundai i20 is suspected to be Dr Umar Nabi, a resident of Pulwama and an employee of Faridabad’s Al-Falah School of Medical Sciences & Research Centre.

“CCTV footage shows there was heavy traffic when the car left the T-5 parking lot. CCTV footage from the parking lot purportedly shows a person in the driver’s seat collecting, what appears to be, a parking slip. After coming out, he drives towards the Upper Netaji Subhash Marg from where he takes a U-turn and comes on the lower Netaji Subhash Marg and moves towards the Red Fort. The car explodes midway,” a source said.

On Tuesday, the probe was handed over to the National Investigation Agency.

Sources said the car was spotted across various locations in Delhi for nearly 11 hours from around 8 am until the explosion just before 7 pm on Monday.

Multiple teams of the Delhi Police combed through CCTV footage to draw up exact locations and the route map of the Hyundai i20 before it reached the parking lot near the Red Fort. “Before entering Delhi, it was first spotted around 7.30 am outside Asian Hospital in Faridabad. It entered Delhi around 8.03 am from Badarpur toll booth. It was spotted on a CCTV camera of a petrol pump near Modi Mill in the Okhla industrial area around 8.20 am,” a source said.

By following the trail, police found that the car was later seen in Ashram Chowk and Maharani Bagh. Around 8.30 am, the car was seen at DND flyover. “From DND flyover, the car entered East Delhi and was spotted outside the Crowne Plaza hotel around 8.45 am and near Chilla village. Around 9 am, the car was again at DND flyover and entered South-East Delhi,” a source said, adding that they are still constructing the route map.

Another source said the car was spotted around 2 pm outside Connaught Place police station and also outside Delite cinema hall in Central Delhi.

During the initial probe, specialised units of the Delhi Police were involved with specific tasks. While one team was tracking the car’s movement before it entered Delhi, another was reviewing footage to trace the vehicle within the national capital. The first owner of the car, Salman, told police he sold the car through an online app to Devender. “Devender later contacted a car dealer, identified as Sonu, who put the car on sale on OLX and it was sold from there. Faridabad Police has handed over Sonu to the Special Cell. Salman has been handed over by Gurgaon Police to Delhi Police Crime Branch,” an officer said.