NIA offers Rs 10 lakh reward for info on B’luru cafe bomber

Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the Bengaluru cafe blast case, on Wednesday released the photo of a man suspected of carrying out the explosion and also announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for providing information/ clues about him.

Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara earlier on Wednesday said that the NIA has got a vital clue in connection with the blast that took place at the Rameshwaram Cafe here on March 1 in the Whitefield area.

Parameshwara further said that the case is being jointly probed by the NIA and the Special Wing of Central Crime Branch of Bengaluru Police. Rameshwaram Cafe is located at Brookfield locality in the Whitefield area which houses many well-known IT companies.

Though probe agencies have managed to collect the CCTV footage of the accused individual, he is yet to be traced and apprehended. Even Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar had said on March 1 that the bomber would be nabbed in “a few hours”.

According to sources, the man behind the low-intensity IED blast had boarded and alighted around 10 Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses during his movements to and from the cafe to “confuse the investigating agencies”. Officials have been scanning the CCTV cameras within the 3-km radius of the blast site, a source said.