NIA to probe Church Street blast case

 The Church Street blast case has been transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Based on the order of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Hyderabad unit of NIA has registered a fresh case in connection with the blast, which had claimed the life of a Chennai-based woman.

The original FIR was registered at the Cubbon Park police station (FIR309/2014) and Hyderabad branch of NIA registered the case as 01/2015 on Wednesday. The Bengaluru City police and the Internal Security Division (ISD) had been jointly probing the Church Street blast case for the past five months.

The blast had taken place on December 28 near Coconut Grove, a restaurant on Church Street. The City police had suspected the role of two terror organisations behind the blast. The investigating team had also brought two Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) operatives from Patna,  Bihar. The police said that the operatives, Umer Siddiqui and Haider Ali, who were part of Simi modules, were suspected to have been assigned to carry out blasts in South India.

However, no vital information was gathered from the duo. A source in the NIA said the probe will start afresh in the case and all documents relating to the case and the probe report will also be collected from the Bengaluru City police.

A woman from Tamil Nadu, Bhavani, who was on a visit to the City, had died from serious shrapnel injuries she sustained on her face and neck in the blast.