The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken a jailed-terror suspect into custody for interrogation to probe the bomb blast at Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Café, sources have claimed.
Officials obtained a body warrant from the NIA special court to arrest 26-year-old Minhaj alias Mohammed Sulaiman, a cloth merchant from Ballari, who was originally arrested on December 18, 2023.
NIA has been given Sulaiman’s custody until March 9.
Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara had stated that investigators probing the cafe blast found leads suggesting the suspected bomber had travelled on a bus towards Tumakuru and then changed his clothes. He is suspected to have then taken a bus to Ballari.
Following his statement, the arrest was made.
Parameshwara, further, added: “The investigators have found a few leads based on the footage. They are verifying the trail from Tumakuru to Ballari.”
Sources have said that he separately told reporters in Bengaluru: “After the blast took place, there are substantial links which suggest that the suspect changed his clothes and took a bus. We cannot reveal all the case details. Very soon, the suspect will be caught.”
The NIA suspects that Sulaiman heads an ISIS module based in northern Karnataka’s Ballari. He was arrested along with four others from Karnataka following NIA raids in December for plotting to carry out Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosions.
On December 14, 2023, the NIA registered a case against the “ISIS-inspired Ballari module” that allegedly planned to use the explosive raw materials for the fabrication of IEDs, which were to be used for “carrying out terror acts”.
The IED blast occurred on March 1 at the popular eatery in eastern Bengaluru’s Brookefield area, injuring 10 people, as per the police. Investigators found a 9v battery, a timer and a few nuts and bolts scattered around the crime scene.
Fresh CCTV footage showed the suspect wearing a beige cap, a black backpack, a full-sleeved shirt, dark trousers, shoes, a facemask and spectacles moving around in a BMTC bus at 11:43 am, over an hour before the explosion.
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