In a swift operation on Monday night, the Bangalore police, assisted by the Tamil Nadu State intelligence, arrested two persons here for their alleged involvement in the Bangalore bomb blast on April 17, which left 17 persons injured.
Police sources said Basheer of Tirunelveli and Peer Mohideen of Bangalore were arrested from a hideout at Flower Bazaar here.
“The arrest is very important as they played a vital role in the blast. Preliminary inquiries revealed that they are associated with a banned extremist organisation. An analysis of the mobile phone call records of two prime suspects led investigators to Basheer and Mohideen,” a police officer said. Parrying questions whether the two persons were present at the crime scene, the officer said the Karnataka police would take the two for further interrogation.
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Portraits developed
The Tamil Nadu police have developed two computer-aided portraits of the two prime suspects. The portraits were based on the inputs given by the seller of a motorcycle allegedly used to cause the blast.
A high-level team of the Bangalore police rushed to Chennai late on Sunday to match the portraits with the photographs and video footage available with them. There was 70 per cent similarity to the suspects who last bought the motorcycle, investigators quoting the seller and main witness in the transaction told
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“The seller of the motorcycle saw them on one occasion. We have sent copies of the portraits to the Kerala and Karnataka police for their perusal,” a police official said.