Rameshwaram Cafe blast: DNA from hair in cap abandoned by suspect likely to help in identification

Forensic experts said hair samples found in the cap can be used to obtain the DNA of the suspect and to establish his identity when apprehended or by matching with those of his family members during the probe phase to narrow down the search for him. Once the suspect is arrested, a DNA matching can also be done for confirmation, they added.

In The Rameshwaram Cafe blast case, the early investigation and forensic analysis of the IED used for the blast suggests that an ISIS module from the state’s Shivamogga region, which came on the radar of security agencies as far back as 2020, could have been involved.

The two main missing suspects in the Shivamogga case are Abdul Mateen Ahmed Taha and Mussabir Hussain Shazeb. Taha and Shazeb are allegedly linked to a larger ISIS network in South India and to the several men from the Shivamogga module arrested by the NIA, including Mohammed Shariq, 24. Shariq was arrested in connection with the accidental bomb blast in an auto-rickshaw in Mangaluru in November 2022.

Hair samples have been collected in multiple terror-linked cases in Karnataka and have been useful in establishing the identities of the accused in a few of them.

In the 2005 terror attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), a cap was abandoned by the attacker who randomly fired an AK-56 assault gun which killed a professor from Delhi. However, the attacker, a LeT terrorist from Pakistan, managed to flee and only an associate who arranged logistics in Bengaluru was later nabbed.

Chinnaswamy Stadium case

In the course of the investigations into the April 17, 2010, serial blasts at the M Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium in Bangalore, the police relied on DNA tests of hair strands found in the packaging of an unexploded bomb to positively confirm the role of a key accused, Mohammed Qateel Siddiqui following his arrest in November 2011 by the Delhi Police Special Cell.

With Siddiqui killed under mysterious circumstances inside the Yerawada Central Jail in Pune on June 8, 2014, allegedly by two inmates, the DNA evidence established in the course of investigations is one of the strongest pieces of evidence to prove his role in the assembling and planting of the bombs used for the Chinnaswamy Stadium blasts.

Five bombs were set off at different points around the stadium before an Indian Premier League cricket match. While two of the bombs exploded injuring around five people, three bombs were defused by experts – providing some of the early clues for the investigation into the case.

Investigations into the case have shown that the bombs used in the attacks were primarily assembled in a house in Tumkur by Indian Mujahideen members Yasin Bhatkal and Qateel Siddiqui. They were also primarily involved in planting the bombs, according to a statement given to the police by Siddiqui before his death.

Yasin Bhatkal and Siddiqui were also allegedly involved in the German Bakery blast in Pune in 2010.

The important thing in gathering the DNA evidence was the fact that the strands of hair found with the bomb were DNA profiled as soon as they were found and kept aside. The DNA match occurred over a year later with the blood samples of the arrested accused, experts said.

Gauri Lankesh murder case

In the probe into the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh by a right-wing, radical Hindutva-inspired organised crime syndicate, a Karnataka SIT found a match between DNA strands from hair found on a blanket at a hideout used by members of the gang and the DNA profile of the alleged mastermind of the murder Amol Kale.

Kale, 39, is a former Pune convenor of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti who has been named as the main accused by the SIT.

The DNA derived from hair samples sent by the SIT were identical to the DNA profile of Kale, a DNA analysis report by a forensic expert obtained following the arrest of Kale stated.