NEW DELHI: After scanning the footage of over 1,300 CCTV cameras across Delhi-NCR and beyond, investigators probing the blast near Red Fort last Monday have prepared an "electronic route" taken by the bomber, Umar Un Nabi, in his i20.
It maps his movements from Oct 29 — beginning at Al Falah University in Faridabad to Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, then to Nuh and back, before finally entering Delhi on the morning of Nov 10, hours before an explosion was triggered in the car.
CCTV cameras captured the car around vital and sensitive locations, including Kartavya Path and India Gate, apart from around three dozen other places. Umar, who was driving the car, wasn't stopped at any checkpoint.
The first footage reveals the i20 entering the university campus on Oct 29 — Umar was a professor of medicine there — before stopping at a common parking space at 6.36pm and then outside a hostel at 8.18 pm.
At 7.31am on Oct 30, the car was back at the parking. By 2.38 pm, Umar had called a mechanic and a compounder. Three minutes later, the car left the university premises.
Intelligence agencies have questioned the mechanic.
Umar then went to Nuh and stayed put at a rented accommodation for the next one week, assembling IEDs using DIY videos sent to him by his handlers from Turkey and Afghanistan, according to people familiar with the probe.
The i20 re-emerged on Nov 9. Cameras captured it near Khalilpur toll plaza on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at 11.43 pm. Early on Nov 10 — the day of the blast — it was seen near Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway, and then at several locations of Delhi like Badarpur, Mayur Vihar and the DND.
Between 9.17am and 9.48 am, the car was driven past multiple central Delhi areas, including Nizamuddin, India Gate, Akbar Road, Rail Bhavan, Kartavya Path, Lodhi Road and Safdarjung Hospital. In between, Umar stopped at a tea shop in Wazirpur.
The car later crossed Connaught Place's outer circle at 2.04 pm, Barakhamba Road at 2.10 pm, was seen near Ramleela Maidan at 2.17pm and Turkman Gate Masjid at 2.34 pm. It reached Delhi Gate at 3.15pm and crossed Dariba Ganj police station at 3.16 pm. Umar then parked it at a lot near Red Fort at 3.29pm. At 6.23 pm, the car exited the parking, and at 6.50pm, reached the spot where the blast would be triggered.
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