The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested four suspects in the Bengaluru Rameshwaram Cafe blast case. The arrested suspects were previously detained in December 2023 in the Ballari ISIS module case.
They have been identified as 26-year-old Minhaj alias Mohammed Sulaiman and Shayan Rahman alias Hussain, 23-year-old Anas Iqbal Shaikh and 19-year-old Syed Sameer.
As per reports, the suspects were arrested on 6th March, five days after the explosion. The accused have been taken into custody till 9th March and are being interrogated at an anonymous location.
The development comes just days after reports suggested possible link of the suspect in the cafe blast to the Ballari ISIS module. Reports citing official sources pointed at several similarities between the blast and the cases linked to the ISIS module. One of the similarities mentioned is in the assembly of the improvised explosive devices (IED).
Additionally, authorities have traced the route taken by the cafe blast suspect after the explosion. Probe has revealed that that suspect was last seen on CCTV at the Ballari bus stop at 8:58 pm, that is around 8 hours after the explosion.
Ballari ISIS module suspects
The NIA special court granted a body warrant to the authorities to apprehend Mohammed Sulaiman who was first arrested on 18th December 2023 during raids by the investigation agency.
Md Sulaiman, a cloth merchant from Ballari, was influenced by ISIS and was heading a group of 8 terrorists. He identified himself and his companions as the “Ballari Module.”
The group was disseminating literature about the recruitment of Mujahideen for the sake of jihad and they were specifically targeting college students for recruitment.
Md Sulaiman, who spent the previous five years working for the outlawed radical Popular Front of India (PFI) outfit, is charged with developing the Ballari module with the assistance of Syed Sameer, a native of Ballari.
They had plans to carry out bomb attacks in Ballari, Bengaluru and other cities of North Karnataka. Their plan involved recruiting college students and selecting individuals who were strongly indoctrinated in order to carry out the assault.
Sulaiman devised a plan to turn the young minds into jihadis after his visit to Pakistan, Iran and Iraq.
On 14th December 2023, the NIA registered a case against the ISIS Ballari module which was accused of using explosive raw materials to fabricate IEDs that would be utilized for “carrying out terror acts.”
On 18th December 2023, the NIA raided 19 locations in four states based on specific information and captured eight members of the terror group, including its head Sulaiman.
This foiled their intention to carry out terror activities, including IED explosions. Teams from the NIA descended on 19 sites located in Ballari and Bengaluru in Karnataka, Amaravati, Mumbai, and Pune in Maharashtra; Jamshedpur and Bokaro in Jharkhand and Delhi.
The raids also led to the seizure of explosive raw materials, such as Sulphur, Potassium Nitrate, Charcoal, Gunpowder, Sugar and Ethanol, sharp-edged weapons, unaccounted cash and incriminating documents, along with smartphones and other digital devices.
Investigations have further revealed that the accused, in pursuance of the path of violent Jihad, Khilafat, ISIS etc., were continuously in touch with one another via encrypted apps.
The NIA said, “The eight ISIS agents arrested during the raids were involved in actively promoting terror and terror-related acts and activities of ISIS, the proscribed organisation. The raids also led to the seizure of explosive raw materials, such as sulphur, potassium nitrate, gunpowder, and sharp-edged weapons. According to initial investigations, the accused had planned to use the explosive raw materials for the fabrication of IEDs, which were to be used for carrying out terror acts.”
Minaj, also known as Mohammed Sulaiman and Syed Sameer from Ballari, Anas Iqbal Shaikh from Mumbai, Mohammad Muniruddin, Syid Samiullah alias Sami and Mohammed Muzammil from Bengaluru, Shayan Rahman also known as Hussain from Delhi and Mohammed Shahbaz, also known as Zulfikar from Jamshedpur were among the eight people who were nabbed by the agency.
Rameshwaram Cafe bomb-blast suspect
According to police sources, the suspect in the cafe bombing, whose trail has been cobbled together using CCTV images of his escape route, took two intra-state government buses to get to Ballari before continuing to an unspecified location.
The investigators believe that after putting the explosive in the cafe, the bomber took a bus from Bengaluru to Bidar and then headed for Bhatkal. NIA and Central Crime Branch (CCB) have stepped up search for the suspect.
The CCTV trail of the suspect show him first boarding a Volvo bus (KA 47 F 4517) from a bus stop near the cafe. According to sources, the suspect changed his clothes about three kilometres from the cafe near a moque. He took off his shirt and baseball cap and appeared in a casual T-shirt.
According to police sources, the baseball cap was found and is an important piece of evidence in the investigation. The suspect’s CCTV track is also picked up on a state bus that travels to Tumkur, which is around 60 kilometres from Bengaluru, from the city’s outskirts at around 3 pm on the day of the explosion.
A camera on the bus captured images of the man wearing new clothes and without a cap, per sources. It is suspected that he got off the bus while travelling to Tumkur. The suspect was last seen on the CCTV at the Ballari bus terminal at 8:58 pm.
Police are looking into whether the suspect left Ballari and took a bus to another location, possibly to the state’s northern or coastal borders.
According to reports, the suspect changed up to ten buses on the way to plant the bomb at The Rameshwaram Cafe and to get off after the explosion.
Reports quoting sources said, “The suspect may have used a day pass for Volvo city buses for his commute to the site of the terror incident and getaway.”
On the morning of the explosion, the suspect’s CCTV trail was initially detected close to the Silk Board in southeast Bengaluru, which is around 20 kilometres from Whitefield in east Bengaluru.
On 7th March Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara stated, “We have some crucial details about the suspect in the Rameshwaram cafe blast case. Investigation has revealed that the accused changed clothes and travelled by bus. We will arrest the accused soon.”
The Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, stated that certain leads were confidential. The Ministry of Home Affairs has instructed the NIA to take over the inquiry, which the Bengaluru police are coordinating to complete, according to the NIA.
It has been determined that the timer, detonation mechanism, and explosives used in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast are very identical to those used in the blast that happened in Mangaluru on 19th November 2023 involving a local ISIS module from Shivamogga and Mangaluru. Key handlers for this module are still missing, despite ten NIA arrests since November 2023.
The police sources unveiled that one of the things investigators are doing to identify potential culprits is to look into the sales of all digital timers with circuit boards, such as the one used in The Rameshwaram Cafe. According to sources, the kit is inexpensive and useful for a variety of tasks. A Rs 10 lakh reward was also announced by the NIA on 6th March for information leading to the identity of the culprit captured on camera during the cafe explosion.
