Delhi blast: Probe trace link to former Al-Falah student, fugitive terrorist

New Delhi: With the investigation deepening in the recent car blast near Red Fort, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police has uncovered a fresh lead pointing to fugitive Indian Mujahideen operative Mirza Shadab Baig, an ex-student of Al-Falah University, which is under investigation in connection with the terrorist incident that claimed 15 lives and injured several others.

Sources in the cell said on Thursday that Baig was a student at Al-Falah in 2007, when it used to be an Engineering College. It was granted university status in 2014, they said.

"The development has prompted probe agencies to broaden their scrutiny of networks linked to Baig," said a source in the Special Cell.

According to officials, Baig, a native of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, is wanted for multiple blasts carried out in Rajasthan and Gujarat in 2008.

According to the documents of the Special Cell, he completed his B.Tech from Al-Falah in 2007, the same year he executed the Gorakhpur blast.

The source also said that Baig fled India shortly after the 2008 attacks. An Interpol Red Corner Notice has been active against him.

Al-Falah University has become the focus of multiple security agencies following the November 10 blast, as "suicide bomber" Dr Umar Un Nabi was a professor of medicine there.

Additionally, Dr Mujammil Shakeel, from whose rented accommodations in Faridabad over 2,900 kg of explosives were recovered, worked at the university.

On Monday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out searches at 25 locations across Delhi and Faridabad in a money laundering probe tied to the ongoing blast investigation.

The central agency also arrested Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, founder and chairman of Al-Falah University, in a separate case involving alleged financial irregularities, forged accreditation documents and diversion of institutional funds. Siddiqui has been remanded to 13 days of ED custody.

Crime Branch of the Delhi Police has already registered two FIRs against the university — one for cheating and another for offences related to forgery. The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) has revoked Al-Falah's membership.