DRDO scientist planted bomb at Rohini court to kill lawyer neighbour, say cops

New Delhi: Days after a low-intensity blast took place inside the Rohini district court, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police has nabbed the accused, police said on Saturday. Cops identified the accused person as Bharat Bhushan Kataria (47), a senior scientist with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Police said the scientist allegedly planted a tiffin bomb in courtroom 102 on December 9 as he wanted to kill his neighbour, who is an advocate. Bharat Bhushan was in a court battle with advocate Amit Vashishth.

"Bharat Bhushan himself assembled the improvised explosive device (IED) using the anti-theft mechanism and triggered it with the remote control. Shrapnel, screws, and ammonium nitrate were also used in the making of the IED", Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said.

The material used in the blast is easily available in the market and online platforms, he added.

It was revealed that during the investigation, Bharat Bhushan entered the court at 9.35 am from gate number 7 of the court and waited at the 'Amul parlor'. He was carrying two bags with him, one was on his shoulder and another one was in his hand. After waiting for a few minutes, he left both the bags at the parlor and exited from the same gate. Then again he entered the court premises from gate number 8 and took both the bags from the 'Amul parlor' but he was already caught in the CCTV mounted there. Later, he went to court number 102 and planted the bag containing the tiffin bomb right behind the chair of advocate Amit Vashishth. He detonated the bomb while he left the courtroom but fortunately, only the detonator exploded with low-intensity, Asthana said.

During the investigation, police found the bag having the logo of a Mumbai-based company. After getting the list of buyers from the company, investigators reached the accused. "The logo on the laptop bag helped us to connect the link of the case," Asthana said.

According to sources, police scrutinised 1,000 hours of CCTV footage. It was also revealed that accused scientist Bharat Bhushan entered the court in lawyer's attire, just like the shooters who executed gangster Jitender Mann aka Gogi. The police also found that Kataria has a property in Ashok Vihar and his rival stays on one of its floors. The rivalry started between them around six years ago on the minor issue of installing a lift in the four-storey building. Kataria filed five cases against advocate Amit Vashishth, while Vashishth also filed eight cases against the accused in the past.

The Delhi Police had been informed by forensic experts and the National Security Guard (NSG) that the circuit of the "tiffin bomb" had not been assembled properly, due to which only the detonator went off and not the half kilogram ammonium ni-trate-based explosive. "Forensic experts said the bomb was placed in a steel tiffin and had ammonium nitrate-based explosives. It also had a significant amount of shrapnel. But during assembly, it was not placed properly… It appears only the detonator exploded," a police source had said at the time.

The security lapse while the explosion took place in the Rohini court also cannot be denied, the official added.