KOLKATA: Abdul Matheen Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazib – two fugitive suspects of the March 1 Bengaluru cafe blast who have been arrested at Bengal’s seafront city Digha Friday – had saved altering telephones, SIM playing cards and IDs to evade arrest however left behind the proverbial cookie crumb at a modest cell restore store in Kolkata’s Chandni Chowk market.
That important clue helped investigators hint alleged mastermind Taha and bomb planter Shazib to a Digha resort, resulting in their seize in a coordinated operation by NIA and Bengal Police.They have been taken Saturday to Bengaluru, the place an area court docket remanded them in police custody for 10 days.
The duo landed in Kolkata on March 12 and checked in a resort in Esplanade. The breakthrough got here when one of many suspects visited Micromagic Infotech in Chandni to repair his telephone, leaving it on the store because of technical points. The store proprietor inserted “one in every of our personal SIM playing cards” into the handset “to search out out if there was any drawback with the microphone” – unwittingly alerting investigators to the suspects’ whereabouts utilizing the telephone’s IMEI quantity.
Store proprietor Abdul Rab mentioned he sought extra time when the person returned to the store within the night for the telephone. The suspect returned to gather the telephone subsequent day, nevertheless it remained unrepaired.
Later, NIA contacted Rab for data relating to the suspect’s go to. “I instructed them no matter I may bear in mind,” he mentioned. His store has CCTV cameras, however there is not any video of the suspect’s visits since footage will not be saved for greater than a sure variety of days.
When TOI confirmed Rab footage of the suspects, he recognised one in every of them, and revealed subsequent questioning by NIA and state sleuths.
That important clue helped investigators hint alleged mastermind Taha and bomb planter Shazib to a Digha resort, resulting in their seize in a coordinated operation by NIA and Bengal Police.They have been taken Saturday to Bengaluru, the place an area court docket remanded them in police custody for 10 days.
The duo landed in Kolkata on March 12 and checked in a resort in Esplanade. The breakthrough got here when one of many suspects visited Micromagic Infotech in Chandni to repair his telephone, leaving it on the store because of technical points. The store proprietor inserted “one in every of our personal SIM playing cards” into the handset “to search out out if there was any drawback with the microphone” – unwittingly alerting investigators to the suspects’ whereabouts utilizing the telephone’s IMEI quantity.
Store proprietor Abdul Rab mentioned he sought extra time when the person returned to the store within the night for the telephone. The suspect returned to gather the telephone subsequent day, nevertheless it remained unrepaired.
Later, NIA contacted Rab for data relating to the suspect’s go to. “I instructed them no matter I may bear in mind,” he mentioned. His store has CCTV cameras, however there is not any video of the suspect’s visits since footage will not be saved for greater than a sure variety of days.
When TOI confirmed Rab footage of the suspects, he recognised one in every of them, and revealed subsequent questioning by NIA and state sleuths.
