There is a new twist in the September 7 Delhi high court blast investigation, with indications that the explosive might have been placed inside a bag, and not a briefcase as earlier suspected.
While initially some eyewitnesses had claimed the bomb was in a briefcase, those injured in the explosion have now told the National Investigation Agency that the explosive was in fact kept in a bag.
Senior NIA officials who reviewed the investigation with top home ministry officials Monday said they had recorded the statement of one injured victim who was standing very close to the explosive. This person, sources said, clearly said the explosive was in bag, not a briefcase.
“We’ll be talking to other injured victims too once their health improves,” an NIA official said. The agency is trying to reconstruct the entire sequence of events to get a better idea of what exactly happened that Wednesday morning. NIA sources said the final forensic report on the nature of explosive was expected Tuesday. But sources claimed it was definitely ammonium nitrate, along with either PETN or RDX, that was the trigger. Without this, they added, the blast’s impact would not have been so severe.
Investigators also confirmed that of the four emails received claiming responsibility for the blast, only the one sent from a Kishtwar cybercafe appears credible. More people have been rounded up for questioning on this. Home ministry officials hope that once this case is cracked, it will provide valuable leads to other cases of terrorism in the past few years.