Bengaluru, 29 March

Muzammil Shareef, who was arrested on Wednesday for being a co-conspirator in Rameshwaram Café blast which rocked Bengaluru on 1 March, provided logistic support like Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and other materials for the blast, according to NIA officials.

Shareef was in constant touch with the alleged bomber, Mussavir Shazeeb Hussain, and another conspirator Abdul Matheen Taha before the blast. Shareef along with the other accused had conducted a trial blast near Tunga River in Shivamogga before the blast at Rameshwaram Café at Brookfield. The 29-year-old even visited Bengaluru a fortnight before the blast, investigations revealed.

Shareef hails from Kalasa town in Chikkamagaluru district and lived with his mother at a rented accommodation in Ayappa Nagar in Kalasa town. His wife is pregnant and is currently at her maternal home in Mangaluru.

Shareef started off his long stint in Bengaluru as an apprentice at a chicken shop and then he moved to a well-known omni channel meat brand. He worked for 16 years in the City across various meat brands. He then moved back to Chikkamagaluru six months ago.

Shareef had come under the police radar in 2020 during an investigation into an Islamic State recruitment plot in south India, but was not arrested then. He was arrested on Wednesday after National Investigation Agency (NIA) teams raided 18 locations, including 12 in Karnataka, five in Tamil Nadu and one in Uttar Pradesh. NIA Inspector General Santosh Rastogi is heading the probe into the café blast case. Investigations are on to find out who radicalised and recruited Shareef who is suspected to have deep links with sleeper cells in Southern Tamil Nadu.

NIA has widened the net for Hussain and Taha who are on the run since the blast. Both the terror accused are wanted in other terror cases linked to Al Hind, Karnataka module.  Hussain was spotted at the Ballari bus stand on the night of the blast.  —Salar News