The prime accused in the Bengaluru Church Street blast case has identified himself in the CCTV footage gathered from the vicinity of the blast site.
Deccan Chronicle reported that according to NIA sources, Alam Jeb Afridi was arrested in January and had confessed that he was behind the planting of an IED on December 28, 2014, which claimed a life of a woman and injured several others.
Afridi has since been shown the CCTV footage gathered from the vicinity of the blast site and has identified himself in it. Afridi also goes by the aliases Rafeeq and Jaweed.
Earlier The Hindu had reported that the NIA claimed to solve the case following the arrest of Afridi who is a cadre of the banned outfit SIMI.
“Afridi has confessed that he was behind making and planting of the improvised explosive device (IED) on Church Street on the behest of his remote handler using the online site - ‘Justpaste.it.’ He had learnt to make the IED from the online site and sourced the material from the City,” Deccan Chronicle reported, quoting an unnamed official.
Afridi was working in Bengaluru as a mechanic. “He was living under the alias of Rafeeq and had even managed to get his Aadhar card under his alias. He was recently married,” the official added.
The source told the newspaper that Afridi was also planning to leave for Syria after being inspired by Armar Shafi alias ‘Gumnam of Syria’ and another SIMI member Nafees.
Nafees was one of the 14 suspects arrested by the NIA all over the country last month.
Afridi is also a suspect in Ahmedabad blast cases of 2008, and is considered to be a close associate of several top SIMI leaders, who are absconding, ANI has reported.