Red Fort blast: Court accepts NIA’s 7,500-page chargesheet
A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has accepted the 7,500-page chargesheet in connection with the explosion near the Red Fort on November 10, 2025, which resulted in 11 deaths, left many others injured and ripped through one of the Capital’s most guarded historic precincts. The first chargesheet was filed on May 14, and another on June 27. The main suspect, Dr Umer Un Nabi, died in the explosion and the case against him will be dropped, as he is dead and there is no evidence left.
Special Judge Prashant Sharma has set the next hearing for September 9 and directed the NIA to provide the accused with copies of the complaint. Nine of the accused appeared by video link while in custody. The accused named in the complaint are 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.
The NIA says the case involves a vehicle-mounted bomb, a high-intensity charge, and chemical explosives made through trial and error. The charges include the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Explosive Substances Act, the Arms Act, and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
The group involved is Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH), an offshoot of Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent that was banned in 2018. The NIA says the group has not disappeared. According to the agency, it rebranded as AGuH Interim at a closed meeting in Srinagar in 2022 and started Operation Heavenly Hind, which aimed to overthrow the Government and replace it with Sharia law, using rifles, drones, and car bombs.
The chargesheet describes how members were recruited and indoctrinated, and mentions stockpiles of AK-47s, Krinkovs, and locally made pistols. It also details experiments with explosives mounted on rockets and drones aimed at security targets. The NIA says the operation took place in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and the Delhi-NCR area. The case includes 588 witnesses, over 395 documents, and more than 200 seized items. DNA and voice analysis identified the man who died with the vehicle as Nabi.
Special Public Prosecutor Madhav Khurana, along with Trisha Mittal and Anil Dabas, said the large amount of evidence came from a multi-State investigation rather than a rushed decision. They explained that the blast was not the beginning of the inquiry, but the moment when the long-running plot became visible through the explosion near the Red Fort.
The hearing on September 9 will likely set the schedule for the next steps in the case. The Red Fort case has drawn a lot of attention from officials and the public because of the target, the professional backgrounds of some accused, and claims that a white-collar network planned a major attack in the capital.
