Police to destroy 24 kg RDX after 26/11 verdict

The Mumbai police plan to dispose of 24 kg of RDX recovered from the target spots of the 26/11 terror attack after the verdict in the case is delivered on May 3.

Judge M H Tahaliyani had last month allowed police to dispose of the RDX recovered from the terror target areas.

The RDX will be burnt in a controlled atmosphere in the presence of a magistrate, Crime Branch sources told PTI, adding that they have yet to decide the place where the explosive would be destroyed.

The RDX was recovered from three unexploded improvised explosive devices -- one outside Taj Mahal Hotel, another near Gokul Restaurant and the third from an unclaimed baggage at Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus -- in November 2008.

The seized explosive was placed before the court as evidence, according to Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

It is the prosecution's case that two slain terrorist, Abdul Rehman Bada and Abu Ali, had kept 8-10 kg of RDX-laden IED outside the main porch of Taj Hotel in south Mumbai.

However, before it could explode, the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad defused the bomb.

Two other terrorists, Abu Shoib and Abu Umer, who had fired at people at Leopold Cafe, had planted 8-10 kg of RDX-laden IED on the kerb near Gokul Restaurant in the same area, which did not explode.

Both Shoib and Umer were later killed by the security forces in the gunbattle at Hotel Taj.