DNA test confirms Dr Umar Nabi Bhat drove i20 that blew up near Red Fort
The DNA samples of Dr Umar Nabi Bhat, who allegedly drove the i20 car involved in the blast near Red Fort that claimed nine lives and left several injured Monday evening, have matched with those of his mother’s, sources said Thursday morning.
According to sources, DNA samples from Bhat’s mother were collected in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, and brought to Delhi to be matched with unidentified bodies kept at Lok Nayak Hospital.
Sources at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, said the DNA samples of Bhat and his mother were matched, and further details will be examined later.
Investigators rely on DNA profiling to identify suspects or victims when bodies are physically unrecognisable.
The police have said they suspect that Bhat was the leader of the “white-collar group” of doctors in a terror module busted days before the Red Fort blast Monday evening. “He is suspected to have been steering and motivating the rest of the flock,” an officer said.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police said they had busted an “inter-state and transnational” terror module linked with terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), and that they had arrested seven people hours before the Red Fort blast.
On Wednesday, the police in Haryana found a red Ford EcoSport, which they said belongs to Red Fort blast suspect Bhat, from a farmhouse in Haryana’s Khandawali village. Forensic and ballistic experts searched the vehicle after it was seized.
According to sources, the property belongs to Bhat’s friend, who has also been detained, and is being questioned.
The SUV was used mainly by his colleague, Dr Muzamil Shakeel Ganai, another member of the alleged terror module who was arrested before the Red Fort blast.
Bhat, a resident of Koil village in Pulwama, was employed at the School of Medical Sciences and Research Centre at Al Falah University in Dhauj, Faridabad.
Two other doctors at the university, Dr Ganai, also from Koil, and Dr Shaheen Shahid Ansari from Lucknow, were picked up by police in the days before the blast.
