The Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru’s Whitefield area on Friday, 1st March experienced a blast by an unidentified person which left 10 people injured. The unidentified person used an IED ( improvised explosive device ) which was kept in his bag. He was seen keeping the bag inside the cafe, minutes after which it blasted in the busy lunch hour when a crowd from nearby offices lined up. The case was registered under sections of Unlawful Activities ( Prevention ) Act of 1967 and Explosives Substances Act. The site of the explosion had been sealed as police carried out an investigation along with fire brigades, sniffed dogs and forensics officials on the site.
The owner of the cafe, Divya Raghavendra Rao, said that after looking at the CCTV footage, it was found out that the suspect was wearing a mask and muffler and had rava idli before leaving his bag with explosives. The investigation into the explosion had been handed over to the NIA. Police had found that he boarded a BMTC bus at Kundalahalli gate, a location which was a few metres away from the Rameshwaram Cafe. They tried to work backwards to retrace the suspect’s journey to the location and was found out to have taken a circuitous route changing multiple BMTC buses to even reach Kundalahalli. He was also suspected of wearing and removing various clothes.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had handed over the investigation to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). NIA has detained a key suspect connected to the Rameshwaram Cafe Bomb Blast from the Bellary Central Jail known as Minaj or Suleman. He is known to have affiliations with ISIS militants, and is currently undergoing interrogation by the NIA. There were previous NIA actions against him on December 18, 2023, after which this time, he was initially taken into custody. He is a banned PFI activist engaged in cloths trading in Kaul Bazar, Bellary.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has released photographs of the suspect linked to the Cafe blast and has sought public assistance in identifying the suspect who led to the blast. CCTV footage was found where the suspect was found boarding a bus approximately an hour after the blast occurred at the cafe. He was seen wearing a T-shirt, baseball cap, and facemask, while in another footage from the same day at around 9 pm, he was seen roaming inside a bus station.
NIA has urged citizens to come forward with any information that could lead to the identification of the blast’s suspect and promised a reward of 10 Lakh Rupees for the same.
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