K’taka CM Siddaramaiah visits cafe blast victims in hospital, blames NIA, IB for intel failure

Bengaluru, March 2: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday visited the people injured in the Rameshwaram Café bomb blast, who have been admitted to Brookfield Hospital in Bengaluru.

He spoke to the doctors about the condition of the injured people and assured the victims of all assistance in their treatment.

After visiting the injured, CM Siddaramaiah spoke to reporters and stated that apart from the police, the bomb blast was also the result of failure of the central agencies.

While answering a question on the failure of the government to prevent such attacks, CM Siddaramaiah stated that such incidents have taken place during the BJP’s rule too.

“It is a collective failure of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). They all work under the central government,” he said.

CM Siddaramaiah added that officers from the IB, RAW and NIA have taken up the investigation in the blast.

The CM added that a special team had been formed and he was also chairing a high-level meeting over the incident.

CM Siddaramaiah stated that though there did not seem to be a connection with the Mangaluru cooker blast case, but the investigation was taking that angle into account too.

The injured people Swarnamba (45), Nagashree (35), Momi (30), Balaram Krishnan (40), Navya (25), Mohan (47), Farooq Hussain (19), a staff member of Rameshwaram Café and Deepanshu (47) are being treated as inpatients in Brookfield Hospital and Vydehi Hospital. One of the patients, Srinivas (65) has been discharged.

Dr. Pradeep Kumar who is monitoring the treatment of patients at Brookfield Hospital stated, that one victim, Swarnamba who is being treated in ICU is now stable.

“They have taken out glass pieces and a substance which is either plastic or glass from her body,” he said.

All the substances recovered from the patients’ bodies have been handed over to the investigating agencies.

The blast took place at the cafe that is situated on the Information Technology Park Limited Road in Whitefield area in Bengaluru between 12.50 p.m. and 1 p.m on Friday.

Meanwhile, police after obtaining the CCTV footage of the suspected bomber in a mask, cap and a backpack allegedly containing the bomb, have launched a manhunt for the accused in Mangaluru city, neighbouring Kerala and in Tamil Nadu.