Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) submitted a chargesheet against four accused in connection with the March 1 blast at the Rameshwaram Cafe. According to the chargesheet, the accused planned to detonate an IED at the Karnataka BJP headquarters on the day of Ram Lalla’s Pran Pratishtha event (January 22) in Ayodhya but failed.
Mussavir Hussain Shazib, Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taaha, Maaz Muneer Ahmed, and Muzammil Shareef have been charged with violating sections of the IPC, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) UA (P) Act, the Explosive Substances Act, and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act (PDLP).
“Taaha and Shazib were funded by their handler through cryptocurrencies, which Taaha converted through Faisal with the help of various Telegram-based platforms,” the NIA chargesheet read.
The accused utilised the funds to commit different acts of violence in Bengaluru, the inquiry revealed. These included a ‘failed’ IED strike at the Karnataka BJP office in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru, on January 22, the day of the Pran Pratishtha celebration in Ayodhya, which was followed by the Bengaluru cafe bomb.
All four accused have been apprehended and are currently in judicial custody in connection with the Bengaluru Cafe blast. The IED explosion on March 1 this year at the Rameshwaram Cafe in Brookfield, Bengaluru, injured nine people and damaged the hotel’s interior and infrastructure.
Chirag Paswan Accuses Rahul Gandhi of Speaking Against India for Personal Political Gains
The NIA, which launched an inquiry into the matter on March 3, carried out many technical and field investigations in collaboration with several state police forces and other agencies.
The inquiry determined that Shazib was the one who planted the device. He and Taaha had been evading capture since the Al-Hind module was discovered in 2020.
The NIA conducted extensive searches that resulted to their capture from their hiding in West Bengal 42 days after the Rameshwaram Cafe blast. The two guys, from Karnataka’s Shivamogga district, are IS fanatics who previously planned a ‘Hijrah’ (journey) to IS territory in Syria, according to the NIA.
They were actively involved in radicalising other naive Muslim youth to IS doctrine, including Maaz Muneer Ahmed and Muzammil Shareef.
Taaha and Shazib fraudulently obtained Indian SIM cards and bank accounts, as well as numerous Indian and Bangladeshi documents downloaded from the Dark Web.
For more updates Subscribe to Media Eye News
–IANS
