New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a chargesheet against four accused in Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe blast case and revealed how the IS-influenced conspirators had earlier plotted other attacks, including a failed one at the Karnataka BJP office in Malleshwaram on the day of ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony in Ayodhya.
Those named in the chargesheet include Mussavir Hussain Shazib, who had planted the bomb at the cafe on March 1. The explosion had injured nine people and caused heavy damage to the cafe.
Others chargesheeted are Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taaha, Maaz Muneer Ahmed and Muzammil Shareef.
NIA, which started investigating the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case on March 3, conducted several technical and field probes in coordination with various state police forces and other agencies. The investigations found that Shazib, along with Taaha, was absconding since 2020 after the Al-Hind IS module was busted. Extensive searches by NIA had led to arrest of the accused from their hideout in West Bengal 42 days after the cafe explosion. Shazib and Taaha, both hailing from Karnataka’s Shivamogga, were indoctrinated and influenced by IS’s violent ideology and had earlier conspired to perform ‘hijra’ (religious visit) to IS territories in Syria. They were actively involved in radicalising Muslim youth.
