Two decades ago, recalls skin specialist Dr Jaichand Mandot, now 60, his curiosity had got the better of him. He ignited a " mysterious black substance" at his dispensary outside Dadar railway station. It caused an unusually strong explosion; only later did he learn that he had been dealing with RDX.

"Even now, 20 years later, when I meet people for the first time, I am often introduced as the man who averted a bomb explosion in the area," Mandot says at his Sewri home.

It was Mandot who also provided the Mumbai police their first clue in the 1993 blasts probe, when on March 13, 1993, he alerted them about a dubious-looking Bajaj Chetak scooter (MH-04-Z-261) parked outside his dispensary on Naigaum Cross Road. The scooter, laden with RDX, had failed to explode, and was defused after Mandot's call to the police control room.

A key found by chance at smuggler Tiger Memon's residence in Al Hussaini building in Mahim by Rakesh Maria, who was then posted as DCP (Traffic), was later matched to the scooter, confirming the hand behind the blasts.

"The unexploded Bajaj scooter found at Naigaum Cross Road was the first clue. It was called in by Dr Mandot, a day after the blasts took place. The key found at Tiger Memon's house was found to fit the same scooter the following evening," said Maria.

"The blasts took place on March 12,1993, which was a Friday. The next day, Saturday, I went to my dispensary and found 10 to 15 patients waiting," Mandot says. "I could not park my car as a light blue scooter was parked in my usual space. It looked extremely dusty and seemed abandoned. It aroused my suspicion at once. After I had dealt with seven or eight patients, I came down and inspected the scooter. I found that a mysterious black substance was leaking from its dicky. I thought it might be heroin or black sugar."

He adds, "I took a very small bit of the substance, kept it on the granite platform above my water-tank, and set a match to it. The explosion caused was 4 to 5 feet high. I then went to the back of my dispensary and tried once again. This time the explosion rose 8 to 10 feet. I informed the police, who arrived within10 to 15 minutes. The entire area outside my dispensary was cordoned off from 11 am to 5 pm, till the bomb was defused."

Mandot was lauded by the Mumbai police for his alertness, and he went on to depose twice before the TADA court inside the Arthur Road Jail. He was also provided police security for some time.

"I have gone to Arthur Road Jail twice to depose about the scooter I found. Sanjay Dutt was also seated in the court room," says Mandot, now something of a local hero, particularly in the Jain community.

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