No breakthrough in the Café blast case yet

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The manhunt launched by the police to nab the suspect involved in the Rameshawaram Café blast case did not seem to have yielded fruitful results even after two days had passed.

Notably, a low-intensity explosion occurred at the Brookfield outlet of the Rameshwaram Cafe on Friday, leaving at least 10 people injured.

Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B Dayananda said that the Central Crime Branch (CCB) has taken over the investigation and is currently intensifying its probe into the matter.

Equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Bengaluru Policealong with State Intelligence have been reviewing footage from hundreds of cameras situated across the IT corridor.

However, despite these efforts, the Police are yet to obtain any leads that could potentially lead to the identification of the suspect.

Police struggles to gather information

According to CCTV footage, the suspect appears to be a tall, healthy man aged between 30 to 40 years.

He is observed wearing a white cap and a black face mask, along with carrying a dark-coloured backpack.

Sources said that the police have used imageenhancing technology and have prepared a sketch of the suspect.

Sources indicate that the investigation has stalled as investigative teams struggle to track the movements of the suspect.

Despite attempts to trace the suspect’s mobile phone tower location and phone dump analysis, significant breakthroughs have proved elusive.

Although the suspect was identified through CCTV footage from the café, authorities are yet to gather any substantial information about him.

It remains unclear whether he was already under investigation by any law enforcement agencies.

Moreover, Police face a major challenge in tracing the suspect’s movements prior to entering and leaving the café, extending beyond a radius of approximately one to two kilometres.

Picked-up persons

let off As per the police, the suspect appears to be highly skilled, possibly trained & capable of employing various modes of transportation, changing attire and swiftly navigating areas with minimal CCTV surveillance coverage.

On Saturday, five individuals were detained for questioning, with Police picking them up from Dharwad, Hubballi and Bengaluru.

However, recent updates from Bengaluru indicate that the Police have released all those detained, as questioning failed to yield any substantial evidence.

During the interrogation, the Police questioned the detainees about potential connections with the primary suspect, information regarding the suspect’s whereabouts, possible involvement in the Bengaluru riots and links to terrorist organisations.

As the questioning did not produce any significant leads, the Police released them, reports added.

Police find similarities in Mangaluru cooker blast incident

Owing to the similarities in the assembling of the explosive, the detonator, timer and the mechanism used to explode the bomb, between the recent explosion in the restaurant and the cooker bomb blast at Mangaluru on November 19, 2022, the police are now probing the networks of the absconding accused, the sources said.

More than 50 CCTV cameras being scanned

Meanwhile, Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara on Sunday said, "We have obtained footage from all available cameras, numbering to at least 50. It has been reported that the suspect used a bus for transportation," he said.

"During the time of the explosion, approximately 26 buses passed through the area. We meticulously examined the footage from all 26 buses and successfully identified the bus he boarded. However, the suspect was wearing a cap, sunglasses and a mask, making it difficult to discern his identity. Further technical details cannot be disclosed at this time," he added.