Tracking the car, hours before explosion

NEW DELHI: The white Hyundai i20 used in Monday evening's blast was first spotted at a toll plaza in Haryana’s Mewat region around Sunday midnight and remained parked at Red Fort's parking lot near Sunehri Masjid for over three hours before its lone occupant drove it nearly 30 minutes to the blast site, Delhi Police officers assisting the National Investigation Agency said.

- Prawesh Lama, Karn Pratap Singh and Hemani Bhandari

The car’s movements over nearly 17 hours before the blast were established by scanning CCTV cameras installed along the routes it covered, the officers said. The explosion occurred at about 6:52pm near Red Fort, killing at least 10 people and injuring over 20 others. Officers said they have not found any evidence of a second person meeting the lone occupant, suspected to be Umar un-Nabi, at the parking lot where he parked the car between 3:19pm and 6:22pm on Monday.

People aware of the matter said Umar, a Faridabad-based doctor, had switched off his phone for the past two days and was on the run after his colleagues at the Al-Falah medical college and former colleagues at Government Medical College, Anantnag, were arrested by Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana police.

CCTV footage from inside the parking lot showed Umar did not meet anyone and mostly stayed inside the car during those three hours. “He is seen coming out of his vehicle at different times and checking his mobile phone. But no one came to meet. It is also clear that he has not stepped outside the parking lot. We suspect he was waiting for instructions. This will be clear by checking the data records of his mobile phone,” an official said.