Rohini court blast: Delhi police arrest DRDO scientist, rule out terror angle

New Delhi: Delhi Police have arrested a senior scientist with the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) in connection with the explosion that occurred inside the Rohini court in the national capital earlier this month.

However, officials affirmed on Saturday that there was no ‘terror plot’ linked to the incident.

Terming the incident as a murder bid, Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said at a media briefing on Saturday that the senior scientist executed the plan in order to kill a lawyer, who was his neighbour and was supposed to attend a court hearing there.

During interrogation, the scientist admitted that he had planted an improvised explosive device (IED) near a place where the lawyer was likely to sit.

On December 9, a low-intensity blast rocked courtroom No. 102 in Rohini court complex at around 10.30 a.m., injuring one person present within the blast radius.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, the case was handed over to the anti-terror unit of Delhi police.

The police began their probe by verifying the CCTV footage of the court complex.

“The Special Cell had to analyse over 100 CCTV cameras that were installed in and around the court premises. They also examined over 1,000 cars that had entered the court premises in the past few days before the blast,” Asthana said.

The bag which carried the bomb was key in the investigation and helped the police arrest the senior scientist from Delhi on Friday.

“The probe is still going on. But after preliminary investigation, we can confirm that there was no terror angle to this crime,” the official said.

It was the second major incident that took place inside the Rohini court complex in the past three months.

On September 24, in an incident that seemed to be ripped from a Bollywood potboiler, top Delhi gangster Jitender Singh Mann, alias Gogi, was shot dead inside the Rohini court by two assailants dressed as lawyers. The two assialants were also killed in the retaliatory firing by the police. – IANS