Bengaluru: The city police have not yet questioned the RSS activist whose allegedly stolen SIM card was used to trigger the April 17 bomb blast in Malleswaram. It is reliably learnt that even though the cellphone and the SIM belonging to the RSS activist, who is said to be an influential leader, were said to be stolen a day prior to the bomb blast, no police complaint was ever registered about the theft, a senior police officer confirmed.
The RSS leader, whose identity the police have chosen to keep secret, wields considerable influence in the region bordering Kerala and Karnataka. Police are yet to ascertain how this man ‘lost’ his phone and how the alleged plotters came to be in possession of his SIM. Had the matter been reported and the SIM card been cancelled, the perpetrators could not have used it for their nefarious purpose.
The investigators found that the improvised explosive device (IED) that injured 11 policemen and five civilians was triggered using a SIM card. The team tracked the mobile tower near the bomb blast area and traced a number that was registered in the name of a prominent RSS leader from Karnataka. It was then established that the cellphone was allegedly stolen from him just a day before the blast. The man has not been questioned.
In addition, the police have also found that 16 SIM cards were used while planning the attack. All the SIM cards were either stolen or had been procured using fake documents.
Thirteen people have been arrested in connection with the blast, including Kichan Buhari, who according to the police, is the mastermind. The police say Buhari is an Al-Ummah operative, the same outfit that targeted the BJP during the Coimbatore blasts in 1998, in which 58 people died and 200 were injured. Buhari was convicted by a special court and spent over a decade in prison before being released last year.
