Bengaluru Cafe blast: Blast probe tracks CCTV footage of suspect’s route

A man wearing a cap, glasses and a mask, who was seen at the cafe an hour before the blast at 12.56 pm, has emerged as the suspect in the case, police sources said. He ordered a snack by paying cash, was seated near the corner where the blast occurred, and left the premises before the IED detonated via a digital timer. He is suspected to have left behind a bag containing the IED.

According to CCTV footage, the suspect arrived in a city bus with the route number 500 D and got off at the Kundalahalli bus-stand nearby, from where he walked to the cafe. Police have also found CCTV footage showing him leaving before the blast.

Confirming that police have footage of the suspect’s arrival and departure, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said on Saturday: “There are seven to eight teams that are working on all angles possible. There are CCTV cameras all over Bengaluru. There is footage of the suspect getting on to a bus and getting down from a bus. There is footage of him going back after the incident. The investigation is happening on a large scale.”

“The face of the suspect is captured on CCTV. He may be wearing a cap or glasses but his face is visible. We have visuals of him walking on the street,” he said.

Police sources said investigators are also looking at CCTV footage from the cafe over the past few weeks, to check for visuals that may have been recorded during any recce that may have been carried out ahead of the blast.

The suspect seemed familiar with the restaurant and the public mode of transport to reach it, suggesting that he may have visited it earlier, sources said.

Police are also looking at CCTV footage from other outlets of Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru to see if there was any attempt to target them ahead of Friday’s incident.

Sources said investigators are also talking to those who have been arrested for similar incidents in the past.

On Saturday, Shivakumar said the Rameshwaram Cafe blast had similarities to blasts reported in Mangaluru and Shivamogga in 2022. “There is a link between the Mangaluru incident and this one. This is what our police officers are saying. The material that was inside (the IED) is similar. There is a link through the materials like the timer and other things. The police from Mangaluru and Shivamogga are here (to help) with the investigation. It was a low intensity blast with local materials,” he said.

The detonating system, timer and batteries for the timer used in the IED at the Rameshwaram Cafe were similar to the ones used in the Mangaluru blast, police sources told The Indian Express on Friday.

“The blast seems to be similar to the Mangaluru and Shivamogga incidents. The materials that they have used and the equipment they have used look similar and so they are looking at it from all angles,” Shivakumar said.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah did not rule out the similarities, but also pointed to differences in the containers for the IED in Mangaluru and Bengaluru. In Mangaluru, it was a pressure cooker, while the Rameshwaram Cafe IED was in a tiffin box type of container, he said in Mysuru.

On November 19, 2022, a 24-year-old youth, Mohammed Shariq, suffered 40 per cent burn injuries after an almost similar IED went off accidentally in a bag he was carrying on his lap in an auto-rickshaw in Mangaluru. Shariq was arrested after the accidental blast.

The low intensity device is suspected to have been built by referring to do-it-yourself online literature on making IEDs by using easily available materials.

Two associates of Shariq — Maaz Ahmed and Syed Yasin, both engineers — were arrested by the Shivamogga police in September 2022 in a terror case while Shariq was reported as absconding at the time.

The youths are accused of being motivated by IS-linked handlers who are yet to be identified.

“The government is committed to come out with a clean and fair investigation. We have given a free hand to the police officers. The CCB is already investigating the matter. Seven to eight teams have been set up. They are trying to trace the culprits. Fortunately, it was not a major incident, but we do not want anyone in Bangalore to be scared,” Shivakumar said.

Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress chief, accused the BJP of trying to politicise the situation. “In Mangaluru also, a blast occurred (in 2022) when the BJP was in power… There was an incident in Parliament. These things cannot be politicised and everyone cannot be blamed. The suspect walked into the cafe with a small bag like a common man,” he said.

Meanwhile, a 45-year-old accountant, Swarnamba Narayanappa, working with a multinational semiconductor firm, who suffered the brunt of the low intensity blast, underwent a plastic surgery to treat burn injuries on the right side of her upper body and was moved back to the ICU on Friday night.

“The surgery was done last night. It went on for around three to four hours. She was shifted out from the OT at around 10.30 pm. She is still in the ICU and her condition is stable. She is making a decent recovery. The foreign bodies that had impacted have all been removed,” said Dr Pradeep Kumar, the medical director of Brookfield Hospital where she has been admitted.

“She was the worst injured of all the victims. She had the maximum injuries,” he said.

Narayanappa has been working with the finance and accounts team at Microchip Technology India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of the US semiconductor firm Microchip Inc, for the last 11 years. CCTV footage showed her sitting on a concrete bench nearest to the spot where the blast took place. After the blast, she was seen lying down, struggling to get up, and was later escorted out by the cafe staff and bystanders.