Abdul Matheen Taha, the mastermind behind the blast at the Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru, is suspected to be one of the Islamic State terrorist group’s “high value assets” in India. Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, who placed the bomb at the cafe on March 1, were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday from their hideout near Kolkata.
The two accused, who were brought to Bengaluru late Friday night and were taken to a detention cell in Madiwala, will be produced before an NIA judge at his residence near Koramangala today at around 10.30 am, about half an hour after they undergo medical tests.
Following their arrest, an NIA special court granted a three-day transit remand of the two men. The remand is scheduled to end on Sunday.
A day after the arrest of two accused by the NIA for their alleged involvement in an IED blast incident at Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram cafe, Karnataka’s Home Minister, G Parameshwara, said on April 13, that the investigating agencies are trying to ascertain whether the arrested accused were having any links with other terror organizations or not.
Parameshwara also added that the investigating agencies will confirm if the accused were trying to flee Bangladesh or not, as there were apprehensions of them trying to do so. “We are investigating the real motive behind the blast and their involvement with other terror outfits (ISIS), as these two (accused) are supposed to be involved in the earlier Shivmogga blast and kept running for three to four days ahead of getting arrested in this case,” Parameshwara said.
“At this point, we don’t have a specific input, but it is possible that they wanted to flee the country as they were caught in West Bengal, which is a border state with Bangladesh. Whether someone is helping from that side (Bangladesh) will be found out in due course,” he added.
Further, the Karnataka Home Minister lauded the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and state police for doing a good job and said he is proud of their work.”Both the NIA and Karnataka State Police have done a wonderful job. Initially, we got all the CCTV footage and kept track of one of the accused, which helped in their arrest. Our police shared very good inputs with the NIA, like the cap the accused is wearing, which was purchased from Chennai, and the telephone number he has given in the shop,” he pointed out.
The two prime suspects in the Rameshwaram cafe blast incident, identified as Adbul Matheen Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazeb, were arrested by the NIA from Kolkata on Friday. Following their arrest, they were produced before an NIA court in Kolkata on Friday, and the agency got the three-day transit remand of the accused duo.
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