Kolkata court grants NIA three-day transit remand of Bengaluru cafe blast accused

An accused in the Bengaluru Cafe blast case being produced at court by NIA officials in Kolkata on Friday. Pic/PTI

The city court on Friday granted a three-day transit remand to the two accused in the Bengaluru cafe blast case, allowing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take them to the Karnataka capital for further investigation.

The chief judge of the city sessions court here granted the transit remand to the NIA following a prayer by the agency. The accused, Adbul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, were arrested from a hotel in Purba Medinipur district's seaside tourist town Digha, around 190 km from Kolkata, the NIA said.

Taahaa was the mastermind behind the planning and execution of the blast and Shazib placed the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the cafe, officials said.

Meanwhile, the arrest of two accused in the Bengaluru cafe blast case from West Bengal on Friday kept the state's political pot boiling ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, with the opposition BJP claiming that the TMC regime has turned the state into a safe haven for terrorists.

The BJP's remark drew a riposte from the TMC and West Bengal Police, which pointed out that the NIA arrested the accused with the help of the state police.

"NIA detains two chief suspects in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast, bomber Mussavir Hussain Shazib and accomplice Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa, from Kolkata. Both likely belong to ISIS cell in Shivamogga, Karnataka. West Bengal, unfortunately, under Mamata Banerjee, has become a safe haven for terrorists," Amit Malviya, co-incharge of BJP in West Bengal, posted on X.

Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said due to the appeasement politics of the TMC government, the state has turned into a "link" of various terror activities across the country over the last few years.

Senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh said under the TMC regime, West Bengal is sitting on a ticking time bomb and expressed concern over a deep-rooted nexus of terror modules in the state.

"If these terrorists were hiding here for the last few days, then it is quite evident that they have support cells working here. The state police were sleeping all these days, it is only after NIA provided the tipoff they acted," he said.

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