Thursday, 9 May 2013
May 09:

The investigation into the April 17 bomb blast near the BJP office in Bangalore has now taken a new turn with police finding that a stole SIM card and phone of a prominent RSS leader was used to trigger the blast which left 11 policemen and five civilians wounded. The police sources have told The New Indian Express that the mobile phone of the RSS leader was stolen just a day before the blast.

“We did a technical investigation of what triggered the improvised explosive device (IED) that injured 11 policemen and five civilians. Through a mobile tower near the bomb blast area we traced a number, which was registered in the name of a prominent RSS leader from Karnataka. We found out that the cellphone was stolen from him just a day before the blast,’’ the English daily has quoted a top police source as saying.

The probe team has collected all relevant material, including CCTV footage of the person who parked the motorbike prior to the blast. The footage is said to have showed that the suspect tried to park it in front of the BJP office gate twice, but security personnel stopped him. “The footage clearly shows him parking the mobike, with the front facing the road. His face is not clear in any of the shots as he is wearing a helmet,’’ the source said.

So far, nine suspects – all Muslims — have been arrested in the case from different parts of Tamil Nadu and some of them from jail. However, the latest finding of the police about the SIM card may point to another culprit group. It is most possible the phone of RSS leader was stole by people around him. And as the police said it was stolen just a day before the blast, then it is most likely that the culprits planned and executed the act while being in Bangalore itself.

Meanwhile, the Bangalore Police on Tuesday produced blast suspects Rehamathulla (29), Asgar Ali (29), Hakeem (31) and Tenkasi Suleman (24), arrested from Salem jail, and Suleman (31), who was arrested in Coimbatore, before the ACCMM I court. The five were remanded in police custody till May 18, along with Kichan Buhari and Basheer, the other suspects.