The National Investigation Agency (NIA), in its investigation of the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case, has detained a man from Ballari district on Wednesday. The detainee allegedly bears a resemblance to the prime suspect in the case, as per the sources.
“NIA sleuths are interrogating him to know his whereabouts on March one when the blast took place”, they said.
The accused wearing a cap and mask placed a low-intensity bomb kept in a backpack in the popular eatery at Brookefield area near Whitefield here that went off injuring nine persons on March one. The NIA announced Rs 10 lakh cash reward for information leading to the arrest of the bomber on March 6, and also released CCTV pictures and videos of the suspect.
Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said earlier this week sleuths investigating into the blast have “in a way” identified the suspect, and efforts are on to nab him.
He had said the investigators are verifying the suspect’s identity and are “getting closer to him.” “Investigations are going on, we are closing in, in a way who the person (the suspect) is has been identified. It has to be confirmed and he has to be nabbed.” On the trail of the suspect, the sleuths investigating the case had visited Tumakuru, Ballari, and Kalaburagi districts.
Earlier, it had been reported that a cloth merchant from Kaul Bazaar in Ballari and a PFI cadre had been detained by the National Investigation Agency and the CCB as part of their joint probe into the blast.
The investigating authorities suspect that the detainee, who was allegedly an active member of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), took part in the plot.
Meanwhile, the investigation teams found that the man who planted bomb at the food joint on March 1 travelled from Bengaluru to Tumakuru, Ballari, Bidar and then Bhatkal, sources said.
Following the low intensity blast that occurred at the eatery, the cafe was cordoned off as part of investigation by the city police.
On March 9, the cafe started serving customers once again, throwing open the eatery to the public with heightened security measures. Although the cafe was reopened with much fanfare on the occasion of Mahashivratri and enhanced security measures to ensure that no untoward incident occurs in the future, it started allowing public from March 9.