The National Investigation Agency (NIA), on Friday, said it identified the main accused who carried out the blast at the Brookfield outlet of Rameswaram Cafe in Bengaluru on March 1.
According to the agency, the prime accused has been identified as Mussavir Hussain Shazib and his co-conspirator as Abdul Matheen Taahaa. Both hail from Thirthahalli in Shivamogga district of Karnataka.
"As part of efforts to locate and arrest the absconding accused persons, NIA conducted searches on 18 locations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Further, rewards of Rs 10 lakh on each of the absconders was declared," the agency said.
NIA has been summoning and examining all of the acquaintances including college and school friends of the absconding and arrested accused, it said.
“The case being terror incident, any information on the identity of the witnesses may apart from hampering investigation may also put to risk the individuals being summoned. Also, unverified news items hamper effective investigations in the case. NIA requests the cooperation of all in arrest of absconding accused persons,” a statement from NIA read.
BJP worker detained?
Meanwhile, citing a media report, Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said in a X post that the investigating agency detained a BJP worker in connection with the blast. However, the NIA statement does not contain such information.
According to the minister, BJP worker Sai Prasad of Tirthahalli has been detained by the agency. “Do you need any more proof than this that the saffron terrorism,” he asked and demanded an answer from the party leadership.
“The state BJP leaders who have blamed the Rameshwaram bomb blast case on the Congress government without considering the issue of national security must now answer,” he said.
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