The Delhi Police has recorded before a trial court the statement of an auto-rickshaw driver who claimed to have dropped one of the prime accused in the blast at Ghaffar Market on September 13.

According to the police, the auto driver had dropped Mohammed Shakeel, a prime suspect in the blasts case, a few minutes before the blasts shook the market in Central Delhi’s Karol Bagh area. The statement is crucial as it can be used as evidence during the trial, the police said.

The eyewitness (name withheld to protect identity) identified Shakeel while recording his statement before Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Yaduvanshi, under Section 164 of CrPC. He testified to have brought Shakeel from Nizamuddin to Ghaffar Market in his auto-rickshaw. The eyewitness also said in his statement that Shakeel had paid him Rs 100 in return, and had asked him to wait till he returned from a shop.

The alleged militant, the auto driver said in his statement, left behind a bag in his vehicle that exploded after a few minutes.

The police had earlier mentioned in the chargesheet filed on Wednesday in connection with the Karol Bagh blasts that the driver had identified Shakeel from CCTV footage recorded at the Jhandewalan and Indraprastha Metro stations. “The auto driver correctly identified the clipping of accused Mohammed Shakeel in video footage of Jhandewalan Metro Station of 13.09.2008 at 17.41.14 hours,” the chargesheet says. “In these clippings, the accused is seen in the entrance, and near ticket counter.”

The driver’s statement to the Magistrate can now be used as “evidence” in the case in accordance with provisions of Section 164 of the CrPC. The statement can now be forwarded to the Magistrate by whom the case will be inquired once the trial begins, the law states.