What the Doctor Ordered Continues ……….

Uncomfortable questions were directed at several people in positions of authority, demanding explanations for the intelligence failure. Indeed, a nationwide terror network had struck at different locations in a well-orchestrated attack without anyone getting even a whiff of either the likelihood of these strikes or the identities of the perpetrators.

Some people in government, especially in the intelligence agencies—both state and Central—owed the people an explanation.


This incident, coupled with earlier blasts perpetrated by the same group, called into question the authorities’ claim of having resolved the serial bomb blast cases that had occurred only months earlier in March 1993, further adding to the sense of fear and panic.

Many detractors of Mumbai Police contended that if the real perpetrators of the crime had been arrested or identified, how were blasts still occurring in and around Mumbai?

The significance of the date of the attacks—6 December 1993—was not lost on anyone.

After the arrest of Dr Ansari and the disclosures made by him, we in the STF conducted simultaneous raids across the country in which fifteen other associates were either arrested or identified. These operations were conducted in close coordination with the local police of Lucknow and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, the Dausa Police in Rajasthan and the Gulbarga Police in Karnataka.

During the investigation, evidence such as train reservation forms, entries and signatures in hotel registers, eyewitness accounts, confessions recorded under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (referred to as TADA), and explosive material and weapons from the individuals accused were collected. A charge sheet was filed in August 1994 in a TADA court in Ajmer.

Earlier, all the bomb blast cases had been clubbed together and were being investigated by us as a single case. The trial of this case dragged on for nearly ten years and the final court order came on 28 February 2004, convicting all accused and sentencing them to life imprisonment.* O.P. Chhatwal, my SP in Delhi, played a major role in marshalling the evidence, presenting it in court and securing the convictions.

To be Continued ………….