NIA arrests five after raids in The Rameshwaram Cafe blast case for aiding main accused

BENGALURU: After raiding 11 locations in four states in connection with The Rameshwaram Cafe blast, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested five people for aiding the main accused in the case.

The arrested are Ahmed, a doctor in Bengaluru, Shoaib Mirza and his brother Ajib Ahmed in Hubballi, techie Md Sohail from Ramdurg in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh who works with an IT company in Bengaluru, and Sabeel Ahmed, an accused in the 2012 blast conspiracy in Bengaluru and Hubballi. They allegedly aided the blast suspects Musavir Hussain Shazib and Abdul Mateen Taha monetarily and through other means.

Musavir Hussain Shazib and Abdul Mateen Taha, the main accused in the The Rameshwaram Cafe blast case, who were arrested earlier.

Sohail and his father Abdul Gafoor, a retired school headmaster, were allegedly receiving large sums of money in their bank accounts, according to sources. The 11 suspects whose premises were searched include individuals convicted in the 2012 Lashkar-e-Taiba conspiracy case in Bengaluru and Hubballi districts. The searches led to the seizure of various digital devices and documents, which the NIA is examining exhaustively.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday cracked down on 11 locations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh as part of its efforts to uncover the entire conspiracy behind the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case and to identify the other conspirators involved in handling the accused from abroad.