Blasts case close to solution: Mumbai police

Mumbai police are on the verge of cracking the 7/11 bomb blasts which killed more than 200 people and injured almost 800. "The case is expected to be solved any moment," sources in the state police said.

In his press briefing on Monday, Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief K P Raghuvanshi had said: "We have got some vital clues about the identity of the culprits and our investigation is at a critical stage." However, Raghuvanshi refused to give a deadline for the arrests.

Ever since the blasts, 16 teams of Mumbai police have fanned across the state and carried out raids at various places in Mumbai, Thane, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Malegaon and Aurangabad, detaining more than 500 people for interrogation.

A Mumbai police team has also gone to Agartala to question the 11 people arrested by the Tripura police on Sunday while trying to cross over to Bangladesh. All the 11 persons are from various places in Thane district including Mumbra, Kalyan and Kalwa.

Inclusion of Mumbai police's encounter specialist Vijay Salskar in the ATS is considered an indicator of the fact that the underworld had played significant role in last Tuesday's blast.

From the leads gathered through the interrogation of various persons, Mumbai police are working on several theories and they are also constantly getting inputs from the Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing.

"Following the IB and RAW inputs, phones of 15 persons are under surveillance," said a senior Mumbai police official.

Chandigarh-based Central Forensic Laboratory may carry out a reconstruction process in order to assess the exact quantity of the explosive material used in the July 11 blasts here, Rukmini Krishnamurthy, director, Maharashtra Forensic Laboratory said here today.

Asked why a delay occurred in reaching a conclusion on ascertaining the nature of explosives, unlike in 2003 when the explosives used in the twin blasts had been determined within 48 hours, she said, "Analysis took more than the expected time because the material used in the blast was a combination of RDX with ammonium nitrate and petroleum hydrocarbon and we wanted to be doubly sure before we announced it."

"We started the investigation last Wednesday and submitted the report to the ATS yesterday," Rukmini said.

The Maharashtra FSL used latest technologies like liquid chromatography with mass detector, gas chromatography mass detector and iron scan chromatography, she said.