Omar un Nabi, the main accused in the Red Fort car blast

New Delhi: The National Investigation AgencyThe (NIA) investigation into the deadly car blast at Delhi’s Red Fort revealed how the key accused had allegedly used fake identities and a makeshift laboratory in Faridabad to procure chemicals and experiment with explosive material, official sources said on Tuesday.The agency had recently filed a 7,500-page chargesheet against 10 accused in connection with the high-intensity vehicle-borne IED blast that occurred in the national capital on November 10 last year, in which 11 people were killed and several others were injured.According to the investigation, the main accused Dr. Umar Un Nabi, who was driving a car loaded with explosives and died in the blast, had researched offline and online resources related to various chemicals. Umar used a fake identity under the name “Mr. Rahul Bhatt” on the IndiaMart commercial platform to purchase materials required for the experiments. Under the account, they listed their “products of interest as fertilizer bags, acetone solvent, anodes and chemicals, etc.”He had also set up a makeshift laboratory in his flat at Al Falah University, Faridabad, where he conducted experiments aimed at manufacturing prototype explosive materials, investigators quoted by PTI said.Investigators said Umar contacted a Mumbai-based businessman in August 2024 and paid Rs 25,000 through digital payment platform PhonePe for a customized mixed metal oxide (MMO)-coated titanium anode, a special electrode used in the electrolysis process.During the investigation, NIA sleuths recovered a delivery challan dated September 25, 2024, from the businessman, which helped them trace the supply chain used to procure the explosive-making material.The challan revealed that although Umer had purchased the anode, the name and mobile number of the buyer mentioned in the document belonged to someone else. According to the charge sheet, the businessman later sent the anode through a courier company to a location outside Al Falah University, from where Omar collected it.According to revelations made during the interrogation, an electrolysis process was conducted in Omar’s flat to produce chlorates and perchlorates from common salt solutions, a technique he had learned through his research.Chlorates and perchlorates are explosive substances commonly used in fireworks.Using the same fake identity, Omar later negotiated for 10 more anodes, but the deal did not fall through after the alleged Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGUH) interim terror module linked to al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) was busted, the investigation revealed.The investigation also found that Umar and co-accused Dr Muzammil Shakeel had traveled to Ahmedabad, Gujarat on April 12 last year to purchase chemicals to make explosives. After praying at a nearby mosque, they returned to Al Falah the next day.According to officials, the accused followed radical Jihadi literature while carrying out these experiments. Later during investigation, material was recovered from their mobile devices.