Delhi blast puts over 200 Al Falah University docs, staff under the spotlight

More than 200 doctors and staff at Al Falah University have been swept into the investigative spotlight after the 10 November car blast near the Red Fort, sources said, casting a shadow of anxiety over the institution.

Security personnel have been making frequent, sweeping checks across the university, prompting visible anxiety among students and staff. On Wednesday, several employees were seen departing through the university gates — belongings piled into cars — as they quietly slipped away to their hometowns. According to insiders, agencies are meticulously tracking those who left after the blast, suspecting that some among them may have had links with the terrorists.

Investigators say many individuals have hastily wiped their mobile data, raising further suspicion. Hostels and off-campus accommodations are being searched with relentless intensity; already over 1,000 people have been questioned.

In Nuh, agencies detained a 35-year-old Anganwadi worker, who had rented a room to suicide bomber Dr Umar Un Nabi in Hidayat Colony and had been on the run since the explosions. Her family is also under the scanner, as are seven others believed to have been in contact with Umar, who had reportedly used multiple mobile phones during his stay.

The revelations surrounding Umar’s time at Al Falah Medical College have shaken the institution. Hospital sources say that patient footfall has nearly halved — from 200 a day to fewer than 100 — ever since the university’s alleged links to terrorism surfaced. Staff members recall Umar’s mysterious behaviour: he went missing for six months in 2023 without leave, yet resumed duty seamlessly upon return, with no questions asked. He taught only one or two brief lectures a week, often slipping back to his room, and was consistently assigned evening and night shifts, never mornings — a pattern that now appears ominous in hindsight.

Meanwhile, the university campus has transformed into a buzzing investigation hub. Teams from the NIA, Delhi Police Special Cell, Uttar Pradesh ATS, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and Faridabad Crime Branch have taken over sections of the campus. On Tuesday, the Enforcement Directorate too arrived, setting up a temporary command centre within the university walls.

As the probe deepens, the saga has taken a parallel turn to Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow, where the local Cantonment Board has issued a stringent notice to the family of Al Falah Group chairman Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui. The property — house number 1371 in Mukeri Mohalla — has long been under dispute due to unauthorised construction dating as far back as 1996–97. The latest notice gives the occupants just three days to demolish the illegal structure, failing which the board will step in and recover the costs thereafter.

Adding to the Siddiqui family’s troubles, the Madhya Pradesh Police recently arrested Hamood Ahmed Siddiqui, Jawad’s brother, in Hyderabad. Hamood is accused of orchestrating a massive financial fraud in Mhow 25 years ago.

With the prime blast accused Dr Umar Un Nabi confirmed as a former Al Falah University student — and several suspects reportedly linked to the institution — investigators are now combing through financial ledgers, institutional records and administrative approvals, searching for signs of deeper complicity.

What began with a blast near Red Fort has now unfurled into an expansive investigation stretching across states, drawing an academic institution, its staff, its leadership, and its legacy into a growing web of suspicion — its every corner now illuminated under the harsh glare of national scrutiny.

With PTI inputs