Bengaluru blast case suspect arrested by NIA in AP? Fact Check

Posted by: Arun Nag March 7, 2024

After the blast at Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru on March 1, 2024, the case has been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the Karnataka government. In this context, a post on the arrest of the accused by name Abdul Salim has been shared on social media with the image of a man in a skullcap.

The claim reads:”Islamist Terrorist & PFI Member Abdul Salim has been arrested by National Investigation Agency ( NIA ) from Andhra Pradesh in the IED blast in Rameswaram Cafe in Karnataka.”

It has been shared here and here.

FACT CHECK

We took it up and first checked on Google News for news related to the arrest of Bengaluru blast case suspect by NIA. A report by The Hindu confirmed that one person by name Abdul Salim (Spelt as Abdul Saleem by NIA) had been arrested but in connection with the Nizamabad PFI network in Telangana. He was the 15th accused in a case registered by the Nizamabad Police in July 2022, according to the report. NIA has released a press note as below:


Further search for NIA releases revealed that the image of the Bengaluru blast case suspect has been issued by the NIA as below, indicating that the investigation and look-out for the suspect is still going on.

The NIA would have announced the arrest of the suspect had it been Abdul Salim.  As of now, the agency is still looking for the man seen in videos who entered the Rameshwaram cafe to plant the bomb and exit. Hence, the claim is false.

Claim:  Abdul Salim, Bengaluru Rameshwaram cafe suspect arrested by NIA in Andhra Pradesh.

Conclusion: False. The arrested man, identified as Abdul Salim (Saleem), was in connection with the Nizamabad PFI network case of 2022 and not related to Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe blast case.

Rating: Misrepresentation —

About Arun Nag

Arun is with Digiteye India since the beginning as the main source for re-writing copies and re-checking the facts and images. He writes on general and tech issues. He can be reached at arunnag@digiteye.in

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