Mussavir Hussain Shazib (L) and Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa.
Credit: Special Arrangement
Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday received 10 days of custody of the two key suspects in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case.
Mussavir Hussain Shazib, the suspected bomber, and Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa, the alleged mastermind of the blast at the popular eatery in the Brookefield area on March 1 that injured 10 were arrested by the NIA from their hideout in Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal on Friday. They were brought to Bengaluru in the early hours of Saturday on a transit remand.
Earlier in the day, the NIA team produced Shazib and Taahaa before a judge in Koramangala seeking custody to continue the interrogation and further investigation. Sources confirmed that the custody was granted.
Sources said that Shazib and Taahaa stayed under assumed identities in a hotel in Purba Medinipur's Digha, which is 184 km from Kolkata, by producing fake Aadhaar cards.
The agency said that while Shazib planted the IED, Taahaa planned and executed the explosion. "Taahaa also worked on the escape plan and managed to evade arrest for himself and Shazib," the agency said.
The NIA Special Court in Kolkata, where the two suspects were produced on Friday, granted three days' transit remand to the agency.
After the blast on March 1, the case, after being initially investigated by the Bengaluru police’s Central Crime Branch (CCB), was handed over to the NIA.