The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested the key suspect in the Bengaluru Rameshwaram Cafe blast case.
The accused has been identified as Shabbir, who was nabbed from Ballari in Karnataka, however, it is not yet clear if he is the same wanted suspected identified through the CCTV footage collected by the agency.
Shabbir is currently being interrogated. He reportedly belongs to the Cowl Bazaar area in Ballari.
Last week, the NIA and the Central Crime Branch detained a cloth merchant from Cowl Bazaar in Ballari and a PFI cadre in their joint investigation of the blast case.
The development comes days after reports of ISIS link to the Rameshwaram Cafe blast. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 8th March arrested four suspects in the case.
The arrested suspects were previously detained in December 2023 in the Ballari ISIS module case.
Moreover, the suspect in the cafe bombing had taken two intra-state government buses to get to Ballari before continuing to an unspecified location.
Shabbir’s arrest from Ballari appears to have further strengthened the possible ISIS Ballari module link to the case.
CCTV videos of the prime suspect showed that he came on a public bus to the cafe. The investigating agency had also found his cap from near a mosque.
At least four people were injured in the blast at Bengaluru’s popular Rameshwaram Cafe outlet in Whitefield.
