NEW DELHI: In a significant breakthrough in the investigation of the on Central Reserve Police Force ( CRPF ) convoy that took place in Pulwama on February 14, 2019, the NIA has identified the JeM cadre whose vehicle was used for the blast. The investigators have identified the vehicle used by the suicide bomber as a Maruti Eeco car, which was bought by one Sajjad Bhat 10 days before the attack. Forty CRPF personnel were martyred in the attack.Piecing together the remnants of the vehicle used by the suicide bomber Adil Ahmed Dar from the scene of incident, NIA investigators - with the support of forensic and automobile experts- identified the vehicle used for the blast as a Maruti Eeco. The vehicle having Chassis number MA3ERLF1SOO183735 and Engine No.: G12BN164140 was sold to Md Jaleel Ahmed Haqani, a resident of Heaven Colony, Anantnag in 2011.It subsequently exchanged hands seven times and finally reached Sajjad Bhat, son of Md Maqbool Bhat resident of Bijbehara of Anantnag district who had acquired the vehicle on February 4, 2019.A raid was conducted by NIA team at his house with the help of Jammu and Kashmir Police on February 23. However, Sajjad was not present in his house and has been evading arrest since then.The NIA took over the probe into the Pulwama attack from the J&K Police on February 20 and re-registered the case.NIA director general YC Modi, accompanied by senior officers of the agency, has visited the site of the attack, 33 km from Srinagar, where he was briefed by the police and the CRPF.The state police had registered a case at the Awantipora police station on February 14 after a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a CRPF bus, which was part of a 78-vehicle convoy carrying over 2,500 personnel from Jammu to Srinagar.The NIA has already gathered crucial material from the blast site in Lethpora in Pulwama district and has been involved in the questioning of around a dozen people detained by the police following the blast, officials said.The NIA is probing planning and execution of the terror attack, the second such strike in three decades of terrorism in the state. In 2000, terrorist had blown himself outside the Srinagar-based army cantonment, killing two Army men.Read this story in Marathi