How Umar evaded cops during raids at Al-Falah
Gurugram, Nov. 19 -- Minutes after investigators apprehended Dr Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie - one of the key conspirators in the "white-collar" terror module - at the Al-Falah University campus in Faridabad, the alleged Red Fort suicide bomber Umar un-Nabi slipped out through a side gate adjoining a mosque, shows CCTV footage being analysed by investigators which HT has seen. The images capture the crucial moments when Umar evaded investigators and began a frantic, nine-day escape that ended with the November 10 blast that killed 12 people.
Investigators reconstructed Umar's movements on October 30, the day Dr Muzammil was arrested from inside the campus. Officials from Faridabad Police said Umar is seen leaving the university grounds and walking toward the main market on the Ballabgarh-Sohna Road while desperately trying to contact several people. Eyewitnesses said that Umar reached out to multiple numbers scribbled on a small piece of paper, all through WhatsApp calls made from his iPhone, but received no response. From the roadside, he was eventually picked up by an accomplice driving the white i20 later used in the blast. The driver, Shoaib, a nurse at the Al-Falah medical college who has since been apprehended, took him to a rented room in Hidayat Colony in Nuh, where Umar stayed intermittently until he entered Delhi on the night of November 9, investigators said.
Before leaving Faridabad, Umar wandered through the markets of Dhauj and then Sirohi, moving mostly on foot, according to police surveillance inputs. A senior police official said Umar appeared "visibly panicked," stopping repeatedly to make calls and pacing in crowded areas. At Sirohi's main market, he ate kebabs at a street-side shop before approaching a pharmacy to request help charging his phone.
HT traced the pharmacy and spoke with its owner, Mohammad Sazid, who spent half an hour observing Umar up close that afternoon. Sazid said he recognised Umar by face as a doctor at Al-Falah's emergency ward. "He appeared extremely tense, kept scratching his head and calling various people using his iPhone on WhatsApp but none appeared to pick up his calls," he said. "He kept pacing in front of my shop for 20 minutes."
At that moment, Sazid's uncle - who was undergoing treatment at Al-Falah Medical College - spotted Umar and approached him for medical advice. "My uncle discussed his health issues and Umar prescribed some medicines, and then asked him for a lift to a nearby eatery on his motorcycle," Sazid said.
After the brief meal, Umar came back to the pharmacy and handed over his phone to be charged. With his own phone on charge, Umar then borrowed the uncle's phone and walked outside to make another call. "This time, it appears that someone answered," said Sazid.
"My uncle was worried about his phone and went to check on Umar, who handed him back the phone, but only after deleting the dialled number from the call log," Sazid said. Umar stayed for around 20 minutes more before walking toward Nuh. In his panic, he forgot to collect his own phone still charging at the shop. "He returned 40 minutes later in the Hyundai i20 with someone else driving," Sazid said. "He got down, crossed the road, took back his phone, and the car made a U-turn. He re-entered it and left."
The shop owner said that on November 12 Haryana STF and Delhi Police officials approached his uncle asking if he knew Umar. Sazid said, he later provided police with the CCTV footage and a full account of the encounter....
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