In a new development in investigations into the serial blasts that struck Jangli Maharaj Road on the evening of August 1, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad team that collected footage from several commercial establishments around the stricken area on Tuesday called vendors of bicycle shops to identify suspicious characters in the recordings.

After the blasts, the investigating ATS team had collected footage of last Wednesday evening from around 22 commercial establishments on JM Road, as well as from four shops on Ganesh Road bordering Kasba Peth and Budhwar Peth. They had been studying the footage to identify individuals indulging in suspicious activities for the past few days.

On Tuesday, ATS called in around 10 cycle vendors including the owners of the Sony Cycle Trading company – who had previously been questioned after a cycle in which a bomb was placed was bought from their shop – to look through the footage as well and pick out suspicious individuals.

Specific footage was shown to the gathering so that suspects who may have visited their shops could be identified from amongst the crowd. Investigators wished to gather inputs from cycle shop owners after three bicycles were found with bombs in them after the serial blasts took place, establishing the modus operandi of the suspects.

Meanwhile, on Monday night, the investigation into the serial blasts was officially transferred to the Maharashtra ATS, while earlier the city crime branch had been participating in it as well. Joint Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Kumar Singhal said, “The official investigation of the case has been handed over to the Maharashtra ATS.”

Forensic report on blast, out

The State’s Regional Forensic Sciences Laboratory (RFSL) has prepared a preliminary report of the explosives found on Jangli Maharaj Road on August 1. The reports states that the explosives contain some minimal amount of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil.

The explosives were prepared by the amalgation of these two products. The black sticky substance found was ammonium nitrate mixed with fuel oil.

The detonators were tied in a series to create the effect of the boosters but all these boosters failed and did not explode properly. This caused the malfunctioning of the bombs that did not explode.

A team of experts from RFSL has gone to Mumbai to discuss some issues related to the forensic investigation before submitting a final report to the State home department and police investigating the case.