Faridabad dealer who sold car used in Red Fort blast detained

The Delhi Police on Wednesday detained a Faridabad-based car dealer who sold the vehicle (i20) to one of the suspects involved in explosion near the Red Fort on November 10.

The owner of Royal Car Plaza has been identified as Amit. He was taken into custody from his Sector 37 office with the assistance of the Faridabad police.

“Amit is being questioned. The police are trying to trace the entire chain of the vehicle’s ownership and determine how it reached the suspect’s hands. We are verifying who brought the car to Amit’s showroom and through whom Dr Umer Nabi came in contact with him,” said sources.

The police added that the dealer contacted Devender, who sold the car through an advertisement on an online selling platform.

The vehicle was registered using Aamir Rashid’s documents, a resident of Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. It was purchased on October 29.

Soon after the purchase, pollution under control (PUC) certificate was obtained by the suspect from a petrol station, CCTV footage of which has gone viral.

Amir was detained in Kashmir on Tuesday by the Jammu and Kashmir police, along with his brother Umer Rashid Mir, a power development employee and Devender was arrested two hours after the explosion on Monday.

Aamir and Umer were with Dr Nabi when they took delivery of the car on October 29, an investigator said.

Two cartridges, including ammunition and samples of two different types of explosives were among more than 40 samples that had been collected by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team from the blast site near the Red Fort, officials said on Wednesday. The police also visited an address in northeast Delhi’s New Seelampur after learning that a red SUV (Ford EcoSport), suspected to be linked to the blast, was registered at that location.

However, no suspects were detained in this regard and the car was found abandoned at Khandawali village in Ballabhgarh of Haryana.

Meanwhile, Dr Nabi stayed inside a mosque for three hours before the blast. Dr Nabi, who worked as an Assistant Professor at Al-Falah University, reportedly stayed for three hours at a mosque on Asaf Ali Road near Ramlila Maidan and after leaving the mosque, he went straight to the Sunehri Masjid parking lot, where he parked the car at around 3.19 pm.

Moreover, the investigating agencies are examining Dr Nabi’s mobile phone and satellite signal device.

The accused had been closely tracking reports of arrests made in the Faridabad module, they added.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe on Tuesday after a case was registered under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The NIA is likely to comb various parts of Haryana in the coming days in connection with the case.

Bomber stayed at mosque for 3 hours

Dr Umer Nabi, who worked as an Assistant Professor at Al-Falah University, reportedly stayed for three hours at a mosque on Asaf Ali Road

After leaving the mosque, he went straight to the Sunehri Masjid parking lot, where he parked the car at 3.19 pm

Moreover, central agencies are examining Dr Nabi’s mobile phone & satellite signal device