According to employees of the Santosh cycle shop, three men came to buy bicycles and spoke in rustic Hindi. Of the three, the police have released sketches of two.

The preliminary forensic report has been sent from the Nashik laboratory to Mumbai and is likely to be handed over to investigators late tonight.

While refusing to speculate on the make of the bombs, IG (Nashik Range) P K Jain said that in all likelihood the bombs were more powerful than crude devices assembled at home. “We are at a crucial stage of the investigations and are close to a breakthrough,” Jain said.

The police are also probing reports of anonymous telephone calls made to the local Dinkar newspaper office.

According to Dinkar’s assistant editor Srikant Joshi, the first call was received on September 5, warning of blasts in the town. “The caller warned of the blasts,” said Joshi. “The second call came on Saturday and warned of more blasts. When we checked our caller ID to trace the call, we found that they had been made from a booth in Malegaon. We have given the police all details.”

Former Janata Dal MLA Nihal Ahmad also claims to have given the police crucial leads. “I was informed about a person from Uttar Pradesh travelling to Malegaon with arms. I also passed on information that the person arrived in the town a day before the blasts.” IG Jain said that all inputs were being examined.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi, who visited Malegaon today, urged Muslims to be more “pro-active”. Accusing the police of “ill-treating” families of those held in connection with the Mumbai blasts, he said: “The police should immediately stop picking up Muslims from Malegaon.” He demanded formation of a panel to monitor the probe, saying it should be consulted by the police.