Enhanced footage of the biker who planted the bomb on an Israeli diplomat's car on Monday has revealed that he had a backpack on and might have carried the bomb in it. After experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) on Tuesday cleaned and enlarged the CCTV video obtained from cameras at the Aurangzeb Road bungalow of Max India chairman Analjit Singh, sources said the man had been tailing the diplomat's Innova at almost 70 kmph.
The grainy two-second footage had initially confirmed what the lone witness had told police - that a man riding a red bike and wearing a jacket and helmet had tailed the car before the blast. He reportedly fled towards AIIMS after sticking the bomb.
The development came on a day when Israeli intelligence Mossad joined the probe and a fresh alert was issued to all police stations about the possibility of similar attacks. Delhi Police detained and questioned five persons, including a courier boy who was reportedly roaming around the Innova in Khan Market on Monday afternoon.
The police have checked footage from 18 CCTV cameras and have asked all the hotels, buildings and government establishments in the New Delhi area to provide their footage for analysis. Sources say investigators might use high-resolution satellite imagery of the blast time to trace the route of the suspect who appeared to be riding a red Bajaj Pulsar.
The bomber's managing to escape in the five-second interval between his attaching the bomb and its going off points to a high level of training, police said. Commissioner B K Gupta said the suspect had not waited for the light to turn green. Instead, he had turned left at the crossing and then used the opposite carriageway to get away. Investigators from Delhi Police and Mossad assisted by forensics experts who reconstructed the sequence of events on Tuesday also concluded that the bomber could have easily slipped away in five seconds.
Forensics experts have recovered magnetic pieces and some explosive suspected to be nitroglycerin and potassium chlorate. However, a confirmation from the lab is awaited. The agencies are also gathering details of explosives used in Georgia's foiled blast and the explosions reported from Bangkok in the last two days. A senior explosives expert from Andhra Pradesh has reportedly been called to Delhi.
