The NIA has been checking new CCTV footages that suggest the suspect boarded a bus and even had a change of clothes after walking out of the Rameshwaram Cafe.
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the March 1 blast at a popular restaurant in Bengaluru, is examining new CCTV footage from the city that suggests the suspect bomber may have changed clothes and boarded a bus to Tumakuru in Karnataka after placing the improvised explosive device (IED) at Rameshwaram Cafe, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The bomber, the people added, used multiple public buses to reach the cafe on the morning of the incident.
“The new video footage of the suspect with a backpack, wearing a full-sleeved shirt, cap, facemask, and spectacles moving in the bus is being examined. It appears that after noticing the camera in the bus, he moved in a direction where he cannot be seen,” an officer familiar with matter said, requesting anonymity. “We are verifying the footage.”
Meanwhile, an unverified photograph of the suspect wearing a T-shirt, without facemask, cap and spectacles, sitting inside another bus has also surfaced.
Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara on Thursday said the prime suspect changed his clothes after the incident and travelled by bus. He said the suspect travelled towards the district headquarters town of Tumakuru by a bus after the explosion and sleuths are verifying his movement till Ballari.
“We have got more important leads, as to the direction in which he (suspect) has gone and him having changed his clothes. Some information cannot be revealed. We have got good leads in the last couple of days. I feel that he will be nabbed at the earliest,” Parameshwara told reporters. “It is known that he has traveled by bus, based on those leads officials are following up. They have got important leads.”