New Delhi, 9 Sept

National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday charge sheeted four accused in the high-profile Bengaluru's Rameshwaram Cafe blast case.

The chargesheeted accused -- Mussavir Hussain Shazib, Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taaha, Maaz Muneer Ahmed and Muzammil Shareef -- were earlier arrested and are currently in judicial custody in the case, the NIA said in a statement.

Taaha and Shazib were funded by their handler through crypto currencies, it said.

The funds were used by the accused to perpetrate various acts of violence in Bengaluru, NIA investigations have revealed. "These included a failed IED attack at the State BJP Office, Malleshwaram, Bengaluru, on the day of Pran Pratishtha ceremony at Ayodhya on 22 January, after which the two key accused had planned the Rameshwaram Cafe blast," the statement said.

The chargesheet was filed in a special NIA court in Bengaluru. The IED explosion, which took place on 1 March, at the Rameshwaram Cafe, Brookfield, ITPL Bengaluru, had left nine people injured and extensively damaged the hotel property.

The investigations revealed that Shazib was the man who had planted the bomb. He, along with Taaha, had previously been absconding since 2020 after the Al-Hind module was busted, the NIA statement said.

Extensive searches by the NIA had led to their arrest from their hideout in West Bengal 42 days after the Rameshwaram Cafe explosion.

The two men, hailing from Shivamogga District of Karnataka, were ISIS radicals, the probe agency. PTI