Rameshwaram Café blast: Hunting for handlers abroad, NIA team raids Karnataka doctors training in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Sleuths of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided the houses of two doctors in Coimbatore on Tuesday in connection with the Rameshwaram Café blast in Bengaluru. It was part of a multi-State action launched by the national agency to uncover the conspiracy and identify the handlers abroad, it said.

The doctors, identified as Jaffer Iqbal (39) from Periya Subbanna Gounder Street, and Nayim Siddiq (38) from Narayana Guru Road in Saibaba Colony, hailed from Karnataka and were undergoing training at a private hospital in Coimbatore over the last two years.

The NIA sleuths commenced the search at their houses, which began at 6 am and ended around 10.20 am. The NIA officials and the State police officials from Karnataka, who arrived in vehicles bearing Karnataka registration, conducted a thorough search of their houses after locking the doors from inside. They also quizzed both the doctors and took away their mobile phones for detailed forensic analysis.

The officials have summoned both doctors to present themselves at the NIA office in Bengaluru on May 23 for inquiry.

Meanwhile, NIA teams searched locations in Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh in a coordinated action. In all, 11 locations were searched in the four southern states, including Tamil Nadu.

The 11 suspects whose premises were searched on Tuesday include individuals who were convicted in the 2012 Lashkar-e-Taiba conspiracy case of Bengaluru and Hubli districts. The targeted searches led to the seizure of various digital devices and documents, the agency said in a statement later in the day.

Searches were carried out following the arrest of two suspects - Mussavir Hussain Shazeb and Abdul Matheen Taha from Kolkata - last month for allegedly executing the blasts. More than 10 people were injured in the blast on March 1.

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