MUMBAI: Dr

(69), notorious as ‘Dr Bomb’ for his role in several blasts across the country and sentenced to life in the 1993 Rajasthan bomb blasts case, disappeared from his Mumbai home on Thursday morning, a day before his 21-day parole sanctioned by the Supreme Court order was to end.

The

Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), the crime branch and Mumbai police launched a search for him after his family told police he left their Mominpura home at Mumbai Central early on Thursday morning and had not come back.

An MBBS doctor, Ansari has been in jail since 1994 when he was first arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (

) for his alleged role in planting a bomb in the Rajdhani Express. He is alleged to have played a role in over 50 blasts across India and has been serving life term in a jail in Ajmer after being convicted of carrying out blasts in trains on December 5 and 6, 1993 at six locations in Rajasthan.

Ansari’s family says he left early Thursday morning for prayers, when he did not return, his family approached the police station assuming that he might be there for his mandatory morning visit. When they did not find him there, police decided to take down a “missing person’s complaint” and recorded statements of Ansari’s family members. A senior state ATS officer said, “We are searching for him.”

Police are also trying to find out about the person who stood guarantor for Ansari’s parole and are scanning CCTV footage from the area.

A convict is usually entitled to get 15 to 30 days’ parole. A convict generally approaches court if, in sensitive cases, his plea is rejected by the divisional commissioner. Ansari’s application was rejected by the local divisional commissioner in Rajasthan. He then approached the high court and finally got parole on an SC order.

Mumbai police had plans to hand him over to

on Friday, from where he would be sent back to Ajmer jail.