Bengaluru: The crime cranch of Karnataka police took into custody Thadiyantavide Nazeer, the prime accused in the Bengaluru blasts case, for interrogating him in connection with the arrest of a five-member gang that was planning to set off explosions in the city.

Nazeer allegedly instigated the gang to carry out the series of explosions while in jail.

A Special Court in Bengaluru ordered that Nazeer, who is being held at the Parappana Agrahara jail, be remanded in police custody for eight days.

The five-member group that was planning to carry out terrorist attacks at four places in Bengaluru,  was arrested on July 19.  Bengaluru natives Suhel Khan (24), Mohammed Umar (29),  Shahid Tabrez (25), Sayeed Mudashir Pasha (28), and Mohammad Faizal (30) were the persons arrested. During their interrogation at the Parappana Agrahara jail, they revealed that it was Nazeer who had instigated them to carry out terrorist activities.

Junaid, the kingpin of the group, is in hiding abroad. Junaid and his associates were lodged in the Parappana Agrahara jail after being accused of kidnapping and murdering a business rival named Noor Ahamed in 2017. They became acquainted with Thadiyantavide Nazeer in the jail. Nazeer incited the members of the group who spent over 18 months in the jail, to carry out terrorist attacks in the city. Junaid and the rest of the group who were released from jail in 2019, had been planning to carry out terrorist attacks by operating from a house at RT Nagar. The police say that they had been pretending to be drivers and mechanics to evade attention.

Seven country guns, 45 pellets, walkie talkies, machetes, and 12 mobile phones were seized from them. In the seven explosions that took place in Bengaluru on June 25, 2008, one person was killed and 20 were injured. Nazeer, who was the Lashkar e Taiba’s “commander” in South India, is also accused in the case of torching a bus at Kalamassery and recruiting youths from Kerala for terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.