Bengaluru Cafe blast: NIA brings accused to scene of crime

Bengaluru: The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) on Monday brought the suspected terrorists to the scene of the crime in connection with the Bengaluru Cafe blast case. The suspected terrorists were brought at 5.30 a.m. to the cafe. The police and authorities cordoned off the cafe located on the International Tech Park Bengaluru (ITPB) Road in the tech corridor, where the blast occurred on April 1. More than 50 policemen have been deputed outside the cafe and barricades were erected in the surrounding area to prevent the movement of the public. According to police sources, the NIA sleuths have brought suspected bomber Mussavir Hussain Shazib and mastermind Abdul Matheen Taha to the cafe five months after the incident. This spot investigation would serve as proof of occasion, cause or effect of facts, coming under sections 7 and 9 of the Indian Evidence Act. It is a description of facts and state of things which an investigating officer observes in a scene of crime. The spot ‘mahazar’ enables the court to obtain an idea of the scene of occurrence of the crime, said the officials.

The NIA arrested suspected bomber Mussavir Hussain Shazib and mastermind Abdul Matheen Taha in Kolkata on April 12. The probe revealed that the suspected terrorists wanted to target one of the IT parks in the Whitefield IT corridor initially to hit the image of Bengaluru known as the IT capital of the country and draw international attention. The most prestigious and one of the oldest International Tech Park Bengaluru (ITPB) campus in Bengaluru is located in Whitefield. Thousands of software professionals work here and it is considered an icon of India’s IT success story.

The sources said that the suspected terrorists also conducted research to plant bombs in Special Economic Zones (SEZ) of major cities in the country. The suspected terrorists wanted to target techies and create terror in the mindsets of software professionals. The accused knew that such an incident would dent the image of the country at a

global level.

After failing to sneak inside the IT parks, the suspected terrorists worked on a plan to target techies. The Rameshwaram cafe drew their attention as it was located in the tech corridor Brookfield locality in Whitefield. The name ‘Ram’ in Rameshwaram cafe also drew their attention and was one of the reasons to target the cafe. A large number of techies visit the cafe every day and terrorists decided to plant the bomb there, sources said. The suspected terrorist Mussavir had visited the cafe on March 1 and planted the low-intensity Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on the premises. Several staff members were injured, some of them grievously, in the blast, which caused extensive damage to the property.