Moving swiftly in its probe, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday chargesheeted four accused in the high-profile Bengaluru Rameshwaram Café blast case. The accused, identified as Mussavir Hussain Shazib, Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taaha, Maaz Muneer Ahmed and Muzammil Shareef, have been chargesheeted under relevant sections of IPC, UA(P) Act, Explosive Substances Act and PDLP Act. All four were earlier arrested and are currently in judicial custody in the case RC-01/2024/NIA/BLR.
The IED explosion, which took place on March 1 this year at the Rameshwaram Café, Brookfield, ITPL Bengaluru, had left nine persons injured and extensively damaged the hotel property. The NIA, which started investigation in the case on March 3, conducted several technical and field investigation in coordination with various state police forces and other agencies. The investigations revealed that Shazib was the man who had planted the bomb.
He, along with Taaha, had previously been absconding since 2020 after the Al-Hind module was busted. Extensive searches by the NIA had led to their arrest from their hideout in West Bengal 42 days after the Rameshwaram café explosion. The two men, hailing from Shivamogga District of Karnataka, were ISIS radicals and had earlier conspired to do Hijrah to ISIS territories in Syria.
They were actively involved in radicalizing other gullible Muslim youth to the ISIS ideology, and Maaz Muneer Ahmed and Muzammil Shareef were among such youth. Taaha and Shazib.