NEW DELHI: Two Delhi Police special cell officers ACP Rajbir Singh and inspector Mohan Chand Sharma , credited with cracking the 2001 Parliament attack case, are no more.

A property dealer shot dead Singh, known as an encounter specialist, at Gurgaon in 2008. Sharma took a bullet hit that proved fatal in the Batla House encounter the same year.

Assigned to crack the Parliament attack case, they got their first break early when they checked the pockets of the slain terrorists and found slips with mobile numbers scribbled on them. These led Singh and Sharma to two first-floor Mukharjee Nagar flats: numbers 535 and 1021.The officers immediately mounted surveillance on these houses. By then, they were sure the terrorists had local support.

The first flat belonged to Syed Abdul Rehman Gilani, lecturer of Arabic in Zakir Hussain College. Subsequently, Gilani was convicted for planning the strike, but later acquitted. The second belonged to Navjot Sandhu, alias Afsan Guru, wife of Afzal Guru 's co-accused, Shaukat Guru, who was also convicted.

Two days after the attack, on December 15, 2001, a Special Cell team was at Afsan's flat and spent hours questioning her. She was aware of the brazen plan to attack Parliament.

She disclosed that after the terror attack, Shaukat and Afzal had left Delhi for Srinagar on a truck, HR-38-E-6733. They were headed for the Sringar fruit market. Intelligence officials in the J&K capital were tipped %off and a Special Cell team rushed to the city. Afzal and Shaukat, two drivers and a helper were caught. A laptop and Rs 10 lakh were recovered from them.

Over the next week or so, 30 kgs of ammonium nitrate, 2kgs sulphur, 4kgs silver powder, 3 electronic detonators, 4 pressure detonators, 3 electronic detonators with wires, prepared explosive and Delhi maps were recovered from hideouts. Afzal worked under directions from Ghazi Baba, alias Doctor, supreme commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad. He was also in touch with Tariq, a Srinagar-based operative of the terror group. Ghazi Baba had sent five Pakistani fidayeen attackers to Delhi and Afzal's cousin Shaukat had arranged a safe house for them in Delhi's Gandhi Vihar.

Afzal had bought a black motorbike to conduct reccees of Parliament from Karol Bagh dealer for Rs 20,000. They made repeated rounds of Parliament. They bought mobile phones, SIM cards, cargo trousers, T-shirts, jackets and pairs of shoes from the Tibetan market in Civil Lines and knapsacks from Chandni Chowk. They also bought three police uniforms from Kingsway Camp. They got fake ID cards and parking stickers to enter the parliament complex. On December 11, 2001, they bought a white Amabassdor car from Karol Bagh and fitted it with tinted glasses and a red beacon.

On December 13, Afzal Guru, Shaukat and Gilani (now acquitted) and the five attackers, Mohammad (who lead the team of five), Raja, Haider, Rana and Hamza met in Gandhi Vihar. Mohammad handed over a laptop and Rs 10 lakh to Afzal with directions to keep the money and asked Afzal to return the laptop to Ghazi Baba. Then, the heavily armed militants left for parliament.