Abdi Omar, a bus diver, told 'The Guardian' newspaper that his gym membership card, which he claimed to have lent to one of the bombing suspects and which was retrieved from one of the bags the suicide bombers left at the site, led the detectives to keep an eye on his activities, along with Menezes.
Omar rented out a flat above Menezes' apartment. Menzes was mistakenly shot dead by British police a day after the failed attacks. "It could have been me who got shot that day," he said. "I don't know what to make of all this. I don't know what I should do," the paper quoted him as saying.
Sleuths started watching the apartment in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, after Omar's gym membership card was recovered from the rucksack holding the bomb intended to blow up a tube train in Shepherd's Bush in west London, the daily said. However Omar claimed his acquaintance with Ethiopian-born Hussain Osman, one of the key suspects, was "not well".
Menezes shooting report by year-end
"I knew him from the gym, although not well, not 100 percent," he said adding, "I lent him my card. But I have no idea why it was in the rucksack." Detectives who raided the home of Omar's estranged wife few hours after the death of Menezes were told he had left the country for Somalia five days prior to the bombings, The Guardian said.
While denying having gone to Somalia, Omar said he was abroad on July 21, the day of the unsuccessful attacks, and "knew nothing about what was happening" until he came back.
