A day after the blast that killed a woman and injured three persons on the crowded Church Street, officials of National Investigating Agency (NIA) and Central intelligence agencies visited the blast site to take stock of the situation.
The probe teams shared the inputs with the senior police officials present at the scene of crime and obtained updates on the progress of the investigations.
The police are investigating with the various angles including the possible involvement of banned Al-Umma terrorist outfit. Police are also looking for the involvement of six members of banned SIMI outfit, who escaped from prison in Mahdya Pradesh.
Several teams have been dispatched to various locations to follow the leads obtained from the scene of crime.
Police teams from neighboring states have also visited the blast site to assist the investigation, which is being headed by Additional Commissioner of police ( Law and order) Alok Kumar.
A high-level meeting was held by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday to take stock of the security situation. It was attended by Home Minister K.J. George, DGP L. Pachau, Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi and others, as investigators continued to gather evidence on the blast triggered by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said investigators were trying to piece together the leads and efforts were on to find out the people behind the blast. “It was a terror attack,” the minister told reporters.
The post-mortem of the victim, Bhavani Devi, has been conducted and efforts are on to send the body to Chennai. The government has annouced a compensation of Rs. 5 lakh for the family of the deceased and directed the hospital for best possible treatment to the injured.
Karthik, 22, nephew of the deceased Bhavani underwent surgery at Mallya hospital. A one-inch, square-shaped metal shrapnel was removed from his shoulder and he has now been shifted to the ICU for recovery, the doctors said.
According to the city Police Commissioner, no group has claimed responsibility for the low intensity blast. Mr. Reddy said special teams had been formed to “examine multiple possibilities”.
Meanwhile, a CCTV camera that was on a private property aimed at the entrance of the restaurant was found to be defunct. According to a senior police officer, It was damaged last week after a vehicle rammed into the pole.
(With inputs from PTI)
