Delhi court takes cognisance of NIA's 7,500-page Red Fort blast chargesheet

Special Judge Prashant Sharma of the Rouse Avenue Courts took cognisance on Saturday of the National Investigation Agency's chargesheet in the Red Fort blast case. The file runs to 7,500 pages. The next date is 9 September, when the court will handle the supply of the chargesheet and related papers to the accused under section 230 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. A detailed written order on cognisance has not yet been issued.

The NIA filed its first chargesheet on 14 May and a supplementary chargesheet on 27 June. Together they name 13 people. The agency says the 10 November 2025 explosion near Lal Quila Metro Station was a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device that killed 11 people and injured others in slow traffic. It registered the case the next day under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

Umer Un Nabi, a doctor from Jammu and Kashmir, is named as the prime accused. The NIA says he was inside the vehicle when it exploded and that he had planned the attack with a group the agency describes as radicalised doctors, facilitators and logistics hands. Several of those arrested had worked or taught at Al-Falah University in Faridabad. The first chargesheet linked ten accused, including Nabi, to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, which the agency calls an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. The supplementary names added three more, among them an absconding paediatrician described as a founding member of a module.

The agency has cited 588 witnesses. Special public prosecutor Madhav Khurana appeared with Trisha Mittal and public prosecutor Anil Dabas. Nine accused were produced over video: Aamir Rashid Mir, Jasir Bilal Wani, Dr Muzamil Shakeel, Dr Adeel Ahmed Rather, Dr Shaheen Saeed, Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay, Soyab, Dr Bilal Naseer Malla and Yasir Ahmad Dar. Nabi is dead. At least one other accused is listed as absconding. Counts in early reports varied between 11 and 13 names because the first and supplementary filings were sometimes described separately.

Investigators have used the phrase "Operation Heavenly Hind" for a conspiracy they say was in motion since 2022. That label is the agency's. Cognisance means the court is satisfied, at this stage, that the papers disclose an offence worth trying. It is not a finding of guilt. The 9 September hearing is procedural. Charges will be framed later, after the accused have the documents and after arguments on the point.

The blast sat in the middle of a weekday crowd at a Mughal fort that is also a metro interchange and a tourist gate. That is why the case moved to the NIA within a day and why the chargesheet is the size of a small archive. What the court does with those 7,500 pages will now follow the BNSS timetable, starting with whether every accused has a readable copy.