Accused Planned Rameshwaram Cafe Blast After Ayodhya Event: Anti-Terror Agency NIA

The men first planned an attack on the BJP office in Bengaluru on the day of grand Ram Mandir event in Ayodhya, said anti-terror agency anti-terror agency NIA, adding that the attackers having failed in their first attempt then carried out an attack on the city's popular Rameshwaram Cafe.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday charge sheeted four accused in the Bengaluru cafe blast case.

The charge sheeted accused -- Mussavir Hussain Shazib, Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taaha, Maaz Muneer Ahmed and Muzammil Shareef -- are in judicial custody.

Accused Taaha and Shazib were funded by their handler through crypto currencies, said the NIA in a statement.

The funds, said the agency, were used by the accused to perpetrate various acts of violence in Bengaluru.

"These included a failed IED attack at the State BJP Office, Malleshwaram, Bengaluru, on the day of Pran Pratishtha ceremony at Ayodhya on January 22, after which the two key accused had planned the Rameshwaram Cafe blast," the statement said.

The NIA said that two men, hailing from Shivamogga District of Karnataka, were ISIS radicals and had earlier conspired to do Hijrah to ISIS territories in Syria. They were actively involved in radicalising the young to the ISIS ideology, said the agency.

Taaha and Shazib had fraudulently obtained Indian SIM cards and Indian bank accounts, and also used various Indian and Bangladeshi identity documents downloaded from the Dark Web, said the agency.

Nine people were injured in the bomb blast at Bengaluru's Rameshwaram Cafe.

Forty two days after the cafe explosion, the NIA arrested four men from their hideout in West Bengal.