Suspect in Shivamogga Trial Blast Case linked to Rameshwaram Cafe explosion?

Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), and other investigative agencies probing the Rameshwaram cafe blast case have received important clues, and there is a strong possibility that the suspect absconding in the Shivamogga Tunga riverside trial blast case is involved in the cafe blast, sources said.

On the other hand, the investigation agencies have also received information that the suspect had provided a fake Aadhaar card and driving license and was living in Chennai. The investigation agencies suspect that Musaveer Hussain Shajeeb of Theerthahalli in Shimoga district committed the act and are searching for him. Musaveer Hussain Shajib has been absconding for almost two years in the Shivamogga experimental blast case. There are possibilities that he may have come to Bengaluru fromTamil Nadu and escaped.

A clue from the hair?

The suspect, who visited the cafe on March 1, planted an explosive device and left the place. The suspect’s face was captured on the CC cameras of the cafe and neighbouring establishments. The suspect was reportedly wearing a baseball cap. Information about the suspect was gathered, and more than a thousand CCTV footages were scrutinized from the places he had visited.

According to sources, the cap and clothes were reportedly found in a toilet. There were hair strands in the cap, which underwent DNA testing. In any terrorism case, hair samples are collected for DNA testing of the family members of those arrested or absconding. Similarly, sources added that the hair in the cap matched with samples from Musaveer Hussain Shajib’s family.

Thus, there is a high suspicion that it was Shajib who came to Rameshwaram Cafe wearing a cap and planted the bomb, sources claimed.

Meanwhile, Arabic language teacher Jameel Basha Umari (55) of Chennai, Coimbatore Maulvi M Mohammad Hussain alias Hussain Faizi (38), I Israat (32), and Syed Abdur Rahman Umari (52) who had been arrested earlier on charges of having links with ISIS, have been taken into custody and are being interrogated. Maaz Muneer Ahmed, an accused in the Shivamogga trial blast case, was interrogated a few days ago, sources said.