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Fake identity documents such as Aadhaar cards and driving licences with addresses ranging from Maharashtra to Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, apart from 35 SIM cards, helped the Bengaluru cafe blast accused evade investigators for more than a month, sources familiar with the probe have said.
On Friday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Mussavir Hussain Shazib (30), who allegedly planted the IED at Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe on March 1, and Adbul Matheen Taha (30), who orchestrated the attack and subsequent escape. The two were caught from Digha in Purba Medinipur, a little over 180 kilometres from Kolkata.
On Saturday, the agency was granted 10-day police custody of the two men by a special terrorism court in Bengaluru. Taha and Shazib were produced before the special terrorism court judge at his residence after they were brought to Bengaluru on a transit warrant. They were produced before the judge after a medical test. “The court has given the NIA 10 days of custody of the accused for further investigations,” a special public prosecutor for the NIA said.
According to investigators, the two had been staying in West Bengal for roughly three weeks, mostly in low-budget, under-the-radar hotels, and changing aliases frequently. Apart from Digha, where they were finally caught, the men are believed to have stayed in Kolkata, Purulia and Darjeeling, investigators say, based on the questioning of the two men.
According to investigators, during the stay at two hotels in Kolkata, Shazib used a fake Aadhaar card under the name Yusha Shahnawaz Patel from Maharashtra’s Palghar. Taha, on the other hand, used fake names such as Vignesh B D from Karnataka at one hotel and Anmol Kulkarni at another, it is learnt.
At yet another hotel, they checked in under aliases Sanjay Agarwal and Uday Das, residents of Jharkhand and Tripura respectively.
According to NIA sources, the two would hop between hotels frequently, and use only cash payments to avoid leaving a digital trail.
As reported by The Indian Express earlier, to avoid detection, Taha had used cryptocurrency to finance the operation. “He used various conduits, including stolen identities and IDs of people recruited for the ISIS cause in different parts of India, to transfer cryptocurrency to Shareef to arrange logistics for the blast,” an official said, adding that Taha is an IT graduate.
Further, to get investigators off their back, the duo changed SIM cards liberally, going through at least 35 during their time on the run. Investigators had earlier told The Indian Express that another accused arrested on March 27 in connection with the case, Muzammil Shareef (30), had allegedly provided logistics like cell phones, fake SIM cards and other materials used to plan and execute the blast, which left nine people injured.
Investigators have also recovered CCTV footage of the duo checking into hotels in Kolkata; during their time in the state capital, the men are believed to have spent time in areas such as Esplanade, Khidirpur and Ekbalpur. Investigators also said they are probing whether they had associates in West Bengal, and why they picked the state to lay low.
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