Rameshwaram Cafe blast: Jailed terror suspect from Ballari in NIA custody

Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken a jailed terror suspect into custody for questioning in connection with the bomb blast at Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe, well-placed sources said on Thursday.

Officials obtained a body warrant from the NIA special court to arrest Minhaj alias Mohammed Sulaiman, 26, a cloth merchant from Ballari who was originally arrested on December 18, 2023.

The court has given the NIA Sulaiman’s custody until March 9.

Minhaj’s arrest came to light on the day Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara stated that investigators probing the cafe blast found leads suggesting the suspected bomber had travelled on a bus towards Tumakuru and then changed his clothes.

He is suspected to have then taken a bus to Ballari.

“There are leads that the suspect travelled towards here in a bus,” Parameshwara told reporters in Tumakuru. “The investigators have checked the footage and found a few leads. They are verifying the trail from Tumakuru to Ballari.”

Separately, he told reporters in Bengaluru: “After the incident, there are credible leads that the suspect changed his clothes and travelled on the bus. All the case details cannot be revealed now. Very soon, the suspect will be caught.”

The NIA suspects that Sulaiman heads an ISIS module based in northern Karnataka’s Ballari. He was arrested along with four others from Karnataka following NIA raids in December for plotting to carry out Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosions.

On December 14, 2023, the NIA registered a case against the “ISIS-inspired Ballari module” that allegedly planned to use the explosive raw materials for the fabrication of IEDs, which were to be used for “carrying out terror acts”.

The IED blast occurred on March 1 at the popular eatery in eastern Bengaluru’s Brookefield area, injuring 10 people, as per the police. Investigators found a 9v battery, a timer and a few nuts and bolts scattered around the crime scene.

Fresh CCTV footage accessed by DH showed the suspect wearing a beige cap, a black backpack, a full-sleeved shirt, dark trousers, shoes, a facemask and spectacles moving around in a BMTC bus at 11:43 am, over an hour before the explosion.

The footage showed the suspect boarding the bus at 11:42 am, moving around briefly before glancing at the CCTV camera and walking away. An unverified photograph of the “suspect” wearing a T-shirt and without a face mask and sitting on a bus also did the rounds on social and electronic media.