8 people died in the car blast in Delhi. Home Minister Amit Shah held a high-level security review meeting. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will now investigate the case on suspicion of a terrorist incident.
New Delhi: 8 people lost their lives and many were injured in the blast in Delhi. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday chaired another high-level security review meeting to take stock of the situation. This meeting started at 3 pm in the office of the Home Ministry in Dutva Bhawan. The meeting took place after a break of more than two hours. The first round of meetings took place at the Home Minister’s residence at 11 am. That meeting was attended by Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Intelligence Bureau Director Tapan Deka, National Investigation Agency (NIA) Director General Sadanand Vasant Date and Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha. Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat also attended the meeting virtually.
The review comes amid heightened security concerns in the national capital, as multiple agencies are investigating the blast that occurred around 7 pm in a Hyundai i20 car near a traffic signal between Gates 1 and 4 of the Red Fort metro station. Immediately after the blast, Shah had spoken to the Delhi Police Commissioner and the Director of the Intelligence Bureau and directed a coordinated, multi-agency investigation involving the NIA, NSG, FSL and Delhi Police. All agencies have been directed to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the nature and cause of the blast and submit a detailed report at the earliest.
After the first round of meetings was over, the Home Ministry handed over the investigation of the case to the NIA, considering it a possible terrorist incident. The decision comes amid growing concerns over the nature of the blast and its links to it. The NIA will now formally take over the investigation from Delhi Police and will investigate all aspects of the case, including the material used in the blast and possible terror links. Earlier, a post-blast investigation team of the National Security Guard (NSG) along with a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team collected forensic evidence from the spot.
Sources said the security review also focused on the progress made in the investigation into the blast as well as possible links with the recovery of a huge amount of explosive material from Faridabad on Monday. A team of FSL and NIA visited the blast site again on Tuesday morning to collect additional forensic evidence. NIA will soon file a First Information Report (FIR) in this case and will take possession of all the evidence collected by Delhi Police as per procedure.