A third accused in the March 1 blast at Rameshwaram Cafe in Bangalore had visited Kolkata, said National Investigation Agency (NIA) officers who are part of the team that is probing the explosion.
Muzammil Shareef, who was arrested by the central agency in March, is believed to have visited Kolkata to hand money and extend other help to two of his alleged associates, Abdul Matheen Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, the officers said.
Taha and Hussain, who were picked up from a hotel in Digha on Friday for their alleged role in the blast, had reportedly spent three weeks in the city, staying in a hotel and two guest houses, before shifting to the seaside resort.
NIA officers said they have come across CCTV footage and other electronic evidence of Shareef’s presence in the city.
“Muzammil Shareef had provided logistic support to the duo (Taha and Hussain) during their stay in Kolkata. He also gave them money for their stay in the city,” said an officer.
The duo had checked into a hotel on Lenin Sarani, days after the blast, introducing themselves as tourists from Darjeeling, officers said. They left the next day and checked into a guest house in Alipore. Their final place of stay in the city was a guest house in the Ekbalpore area.
The NIA officers said they have found CCTV footage which showed that Shareef had come to visit the duo at a location in central Kolkata to hand them money.
“The three accused are being questioned separately and also together. We need to find out whether more people were involved in helping the accused during their stay in the city,” an NIA officer said.
