NEW DELHI, Nov 16: A major breakthrough has been achieved in the Red Fort car blast case, with intelligence agencies uncovering a Rs 20 lakh fund trail linked to three doctors, Umar, Muzammil, and Shaheen.
Intelligence sources on Sunday said that the amount is suspected to have been routed by a Jaish-e-Mohammed handler through a hawala network.
Of this, around Rs 3 lakh is believed to have been spent on purchasing 26 quintals of NPK fertiliser, a nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium-based chemical compound used in agriculture, which is also capable of producing explosives used in the blast.
Officials further revealed that tensions had reportedly emerged between Dr Umar-un-Nabi and Dr Shaheen over the handling of the funds. Sources added that a key lead was obtained from Muzammil, helping investigators piece together the financial links behind the conspiracy.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police sources on Sunday confirmed that three cartridges recovered from the site, two live and one empty, were of 9mm calibre, a firearm type prohibited for civilian possession and used by security forces.
A senior official said that despite the cartridge recovery, no pistol or any of its parts were found at the scene.
“These cartridges are usually only possessed by the armed forces or those with special permission,” police said.
According to sources, no pistol or any part of it was found at the scene…meaning the cartridges were found, but the weapon used to fire them has not yet been found.
The official said that they are now trying to determine how these cartridges came to be there, whether the suspect possessed them.
The discovery of the 9mm cartridges adds a new dimension to the ongoing investigation, as officials probe the source of the ammunition and whether it was linked to any terror or criminal network. Security agencies examined CCTV footage and gathered forensic evidence from the blast site.
