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News Tamil Nadu

How Congress, Sun News, Puthiya Thalaimurai’s Serial Fake News Peddler & Other D Stock Media Peddled False News About BJP Worker Being Involved In Rameshwaram Cafe Blast

April 7, 2024
The Commune

On April 5th, 2024, a significant news story captured the attention of numerous mainstream media outlets, concerning the Rameshwaram café explosion in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Reports surfaced alleging the detention of Sai Prasad, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the incident. The accusation gained traction through statements from the Congress party, its leadership, and various voices within the liberal sphere, suggesting Prasad’s involvement and ties to other suspects.

However, conflicting accounts soon emerged, challenging the allegations. These reports indicated that the NIA had merely summoned Prasad to provide testimony, rather than considering him a suspect. Subsequently, the NIA issued a press release clarifying Prasad’s status as a witness in the case, not an accused individual.

“NIA to gather evidence and information in the case have been summoning and examining all of the acquaintances including college and school time friends of the absconding and arrested accused persons. The case being a terror incident, any information on the identity of the witnesses may apart from hampering investigation may also put at risk the individuals being summoned,” the NIA statement read released on 5 March 2024

The official social media account of the Congress party seized upon this development to criticize the ruling party, insinuating, “On March 1, a blast occurred at Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru, in which more than 10 people were injured. Now the NIA has detained a BJP leader in this case. His connection with the blast has come to light. You will not see this news in any TV news, you know the reason. The question is- why does BJP always have a terrorist connection?”

As the I.N.D.I alliance, spearheaded by Congress, began to propagate a narrative suggesting BJP workers’ involvement in the bomb blast case, it was latched on to by other Dravidian Stock media outlets in Tamil Nadu.

The storyline gained momentum initially through the rapid dissemination by DMK’s primary channels, including Sun News and Kalaignar News, the mouthpieces for the party’s first family. Serial fake news peddler belonging to Puthiya Thalaimurai, Niranjan Kumar wrote “BJP’s Sai Prasad arrested for being in touch with suspects in Rameswaram restaurant blast case probed by National Intelligence Agency”

Eventually, the left-leaning network and D-Stocks in the social media platforms  further propagated these claims.

 

However, the factual information presented is as per reports from the Indian Express, Sai Prasad, identified as a BJP worker from Shivamogga district, was called in for questioning by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) this week, and subsequently allowed to return home. According to investigators, Prasad frequented a mobile store in Thirthahalli operated by Sardar Naveed, a suspect searched by the NIA on 27 March 2024. The BJP worker sold a mobile phone to Naveed’s store. The inquiry revealed that the mobile phone, originally bought and sold by the BJP worker, was later used by Muzammil Shareef, 30, the sole individual arrested in connection to the Rameshwaram Cafe blast incident.

Shareef, a resident of Bengaluru, is alleged to have provided logistical assistance, including mobile SIMs and materials for making IEDs, to the two primary missing suspects involved in the cafe’s bombing—Musavir Hussain Shazib, 30, believed to be the device planter, and Abdul Matheen Taha, 30, his close associate. Analysis of phone usage led investigators to the IMEI number of the phone linked to the BJP worker, nothing than that.

Earlier in mid-March, NIA detained an individual named Syed Shabbir from Ballari, suspecting his interaction with the main suspect in Ballari on the night of March 1, approximately eight hours post the blast. He was later released after interrogation. On 27 March 2024, NIA conducted searches at 18 locations and summoned several individuals for questioning. Among the places searched was Naveed’s mobile phone store, where the arrested suspect Shareef, reportedly a frequent visitor, had family connections in Thirthahalli.

Following Shareef’s arrest on March 27, NIA officially identified Mussavir Hussain Shazib as the person who carried out the IED blast at the Rameshwaram Cafe, with Abdul Matheen Taha as his co-conspirator, both residents of Thirthahalli in Shivamogga district. On 29 March 2024, NIA released CCTV images from a clothing store at a Chennai mall, confirming the identities of the main suspect and his associate. A cap left behind by the suspect after planting the IED led authorities to the Chennai mall.

NIA has indicated the suspects’ inclination towards using fake identities to cover their tracks, with Taha using Hindu identity documents under the name ‘Vignesh’ or ‘Sumit’, and Shazib using a forged driving license under the name ‘Mohammed Juned Sayed’. The utilization of phones, SIM cards, ID documents, and encrypted communication systems during terror plots is considered typical terror tradecraft to evade investigations.

The main suspects in the cafe blast are associated with a Shivamogga module of the Islamic State, against whom four terror cases have been filed since 2020, with Shazib and Taha emerging in January 2020 following the arrests of over 30 individuals in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Abdul Matheen Taha and Musavir Hussain Shazib have been identified in multiple terror cases, with Taha allegedly involved in bomb testing, an accidental blast in Mangaluru, and a provocative graffiti case in Mangaluru.

Maaz Muneer Ahmed, a key member of the Shivamogga IS group, currently in prison since September 2022, was taken into custody by NIA between March 14 and 21 in connection to the cafe blast case.

(With Inputs From IE)

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