On Black Friday, the bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) of the Mumbai police, which is reckoned to be one of the best in the country was busy inspecting the bombed premises with its hi-tech equipment. But the best instrument it had was a one-year old golden Labrador named Zanzeer, who specialised in sniffing out explosives.
That night, the squad got a message that a deserted maroon coloured Maruti van was parked suspiciously outside Siemens factory in Worli area. The squad reached there and started inspecting the van. The door was opened with a rope. There were two rexine bags on the back seat of the van. Then Zanzeer sniffed the bag and barked thrice. The bag contained AK-56 rifles.
The team then searched the Maruti Van thoroughly. In the dashboard were photo copies of registration papers in the name of one Rubina Memon. DCP Rakesh Maria, who was leading the investigations, got a call on March 14 that a scooter had been found abandoned at Naigaon junction at Dadar.
It was again Zanzeer, who sniffed the scooter and confirmed the presence of explosives. Nearly 15 kg of RDX was in the scooter, but the bomb had not exploded.
In the evening, Maria went to Mahim police station for routine checking. He was informed about the recovery of a Maruti van with AK-56 rifles and grenades. When he heard that Rubina had not lodged any complaint about her van, he decided to visit her. The police team reached her residence at Al-Hussaini on Durgah road in Mahim. The fifth floor flats belonging to the Memons were locked. A neighbour said none of the Memons were in since Monday, although one of the Memons — a Mushtaq bhai, also called Tiger — was in on Thursday evening.
It rang an instant bell to the Mahim PI, who told Maria that Tiger Memon was a “smuggler” with a long criminal history. Further inquiries revealed that Ms Rubina was Tiger’s elder brother Suleiman’s wife. Maria wondered whether the Memons were connected with the bombings.
The flats were searched. A scooter key was found in a drawer. On a hunch, Maria asked ACP Dangle to take the key to Matunga police station and try to fit it into the scooter which the police had found at Naigaum Cross Lane. Dangle reported that the key did belong to the RDX-laden scooter.
They got information on Tiger’s manager, Asgar Mukadam, who stayed at Andheri. He was brought to Mahim police station. Asgar spoke about the bombings and disclosed as many details as he knew.  Soon the bomb planters were in the net.  One by one Dawood Phanse, Parkar and others involved in landing were arrested. It was Phanse who implicated Dawood Ibrahim and  spoke of his meetings with Tiger Memon.