Two weeks after the key suspect in the Bengaluru serial blasts of 2008 was arrested by the Central Crime Branch in the city, the suspect has now revealed that he executed a contract killing and a robbery during the time he was on the run.
Abdul Saleem (41), a resident of Perumba in Kannur district of Kerala, was one of 20 persons accused in the serial blasts that saw two people killed and 20 others injured in Bengaluru in July 2008.
A total of seven low-intensity crude bombs exploded across Bengaluru between 1:20 pm and 2:35 pm on July 25, 2008, in Madiwala, Mysuru Road, Adugodi, Koramangala, Vittal Mallya Road, Langford Town and Richmond Town.
At the time of the incident, the investigators nabbed Sameer Sadiq within a week of the blasts for his alleged role in the blasts. Abdul Nasser Madani, the founder of the fringe outfit People's Democratic Party (PDP), was arrested in December 2009 but Saleem managed to avoid arrest for more than ten years after the incident.
Saleem was arrested in a late night operation in his hometown on October 10. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had been on the lookout for Saleem for over ten years.
Following his arrest, Saleem revealed he had supplied the materials used in the explosions and offered shelter to the people executing the blasts.
“As many as 20 persons, including PDP Chairman Abdul Nasser Madani, were arrested earlier in the case. But Saleem had managed to evade arrest. He has now admitted to the role he had played in the case and has been remanded to judicial custody. An additional chargesheet will be submitted against him to the court,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar speaking to TNIE.
During the course of interrogation, Saleem reportedly revealed that he had links to two other crimes with no links to terror. He admitted to killing a person named Nishad from his hometown of Perumba for Rs 25 lakh in 2012. Nishad was killed reportedly over a relationship with a woman. Additionally, he admitted that he planned and executed a robbery in Perumba in 2016.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) has informed its counterparts in Kerala about the details of the interrogation. A missing case was registered under the name of Nishad in Perumba in 2012.