The NIA on Monday chargesheeted four men in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case and said the accused were involved in a “failed IED attack” at the Bengaluru BJP office on the day of the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya.It said two of the key accused were ISIS (banned terrorist organisation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) radicals who used fraudulently obtained “Indian SIM cards and Indian bank accounts” besides “various Indian and Bangladeshi Identity documents downloaded from the dark web (which is accessible only through specialised browsers) in carrying out their nefarious activities.
In a charge sheet filed before a court in Bengaluru, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) named Mussavir Hussain Shazib, Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taaha, Maaz Muneer Ahmed and Muzammil Shareef, as accused.
All of them were arrested earlier and are currently in judicial custody in the case, a statement issued by the NIA said.
Taaha and Shazib were funded by their handler through cryptocurrencies, which Taaha converted to cash with the help of various Telegram-based peer-to-peer or P2P platforms, it said.
“The funds were used by the accused to perpetrate various acts of violence in Bengaluru, investigations further revealed. These included a failed IED attack at the state BJP Office, Malleshwaram, Bengaluru, on the day of the Pran Pratishtha ceremony at Ayodhya on January 22, 2024, after which the two key accused planned the Rameshwaram Cafe blast,” the statement said
The Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion, which took place on March 1, at the popular cafe in Bengaluru’s Brookfield left nine people injured and caused extensive damage to the property.