Chennai: The same mysterious cap, which hid the face of the main suspect in that viral CCTV footage related to the March 1 Rameshwaram cafe blast in Karnataka capital Bengaluru, has helped the National Investigation Agency to identify the suspect along with his accomplice.
In the ongoing investigation into the low intensity blast, which left 10 people including two restaurant workers injured, the NIA has revealed a Tamil Nadu link to the case with both the suspects believed to have stayed in Chennai in January where they bought the limited edition baseball cap from a mall in Mylapore.
NIA sources said that both the suspects were staying in Chennai's Triplicane area from the second week of January to the first week of February, and that's when the main suspect identified as Musavir Hussain Shazib along with his accomplice Abdil Mathern Taha bought the baseball cap at a shopping mall in Mylapore, Chennai.
The cap was found by the NIA abandoned around 3 km from the bombed cafe and had strands of hair in it which have been sent for DNA testing by the investigators. Sources said that the cap was found to be from a limited edition series with the serial number on it helping the NIA investigators trace it to the mall which sold it.
It is learnt that a total of 400 people from southern states bought the limited edition cap which made the task easy for the NIA.
The CCTV footage of the mall retrieved by the Tamil Nadu police showed two men purchasing the cap from the seller. Matching the images from the mall with the CCTV footage from the public bus helped the NIA zero in on the main suspect.
Based on the analysis of the new CCTV footage, the NIA has released new photographs of the main suspect Shazib.
It is learnt that main suspect Shazib and his associate Abdil Mathern Taha are wanted for four years in connection with an IS case in 2020, and have been on the radar of the investigating agencies for quite some time now.
The NIA has also announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for any clues about the two suspects in the case.
