Rameshwaram Cafe Blast: New Footage Shows Bomber Changed Clothes, Boarded Bus
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the March 1 blast at a popular restaurant in Bengaluru, is examining new CCTV footage from the city that suggests the suspect bomber may have changed clothes and boarded a bus to Tumakuru in Karnataka after placing the improvised explosive device (IED) at Rameshwaram Cafe, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The bomber, the people added, used multiple public buses to reach the cafe on the morning of the incident.
“The new video footage of the suspect with a backpack, wearing a full-sleeved shirt, cap, facemask, and spectacles moving in the bus is being examined. It appears that after noticing the camera in the bus, he moved in a direction where he cannot be seen,” an officer familiar with matter said, requesting anonymity. “We are verifying the footage.”
Meanwhile, an unverified photograph of the suspect wearing a T-shirt, without facemask, cap and spectacles, sitting inside another bus has also surfaced.
Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara on Thursday said the prime suspect changed his clothes after the incident and travelled by bus. He said the suspect travelled towards the district headquarters town of Tumakuru by a bus after the explosion and sleuths are verifying his movement till Ballari.
“We have got more important leads, as to the direction in which he (suspect) has gone and him having changed his clothes. Some information cannot be revealed. We have got good leads in the last couple of days. I feel that he will be nabbed at the earliest,” Parameshwara told reporters. “It is known that he has traveled by bus, based on those leads officials are following up. They have got important leads.”
The federal anti-terror probe agency, which earlier this week took over the probe into the blast at the popular eatery in Brookfield area of Bengaluru that left nine people injured, on Wednesday announced a ₹10-lakh reward for information about the suspect.
As reported by HT on Tuesday, NIA is looking at all possible angles, including role of Islamic State operatives. Based on preliminary analysis, investigators have also drawn similarities between the March 1 blast at the cafe and October 2022 blast at a temple in Coimbatore in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
The Coimbatore blast, also being investigated by NIA, was carried out by an Islamic State operative, Jameesha Mubeen, who died in the blast.