Delhi court blast: Police make breakthrough, man apprehended

A senior police officer from the Special Cell confirmed the arrest and said they are formalising the paperwork. “We have sufficient evidence against him, including electronic evidence which shows his presence on the court premises. Now we are trying to find whether anyone else was involved,” said the officer, adding that they have “ruled out any terror angle”.

Police had at the time said it was a “minor low-intensity explosion” and that the device was in a black backpack that was left in the courtroom by an unknown person. “Several teams of the Special Cell worked round the clock and the Northern Range, in the meantime, got a lead after checking the list of arrested men who were supposed to appear in courtroom number 102 on December 10. They questioned these men and asked if they had a previous rivalry with anyone. Police also started checking CCTV cameras and found footage of a man whom they found suspicious. One of the people who was supposed to appear for hearing that day then identified the man caught on CCTV as his neighbour, and the police soon picked him up,” said a senior officer.

The Delhi Police had been informed by forensic experts and the NSG that the “tiffin bomb’s” circuit had not been assembled properly, due to which only the detonator and not the half kg ammonium nitrate-based explosives went off.

“Forensic experts said the bomb was placed in a steel tiffin and had ammonium nitrate-based explosives. It also had a significant amount of shrapnel. But during assembly, it was not placed properly… It appears only the detonator exploded,” a police source had said at the time.

Police had found a 12-volt battery, shrapnel, white ammonium nitrate powder, an electronic circuit wire and a frequency antenna, which also had the technology of increasing and decreasing the frequency. Police had found that the bomb was operated remotely.