The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused Karnataka’s ruling Congress of spreading fake news, responding to a minister’s social media post that officials had detained a BJP worker in connection with a blast at a popular eatery in Bengaluru last month.
The BJP asked for health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao’s apology on Friday and said it was unfortunate that he did not know the difference between the questioning of a witness and an accused.
“The Congress IT cell is trying to pass off fake news as truth,” the BJP’s post on X (previously Twitter) said. It was accompanied by #PakistanPremiCongress.
Earlier on Friday, Rao posted that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the March 1 explosion at Rameshwaram cafe, took a BJP worker from Karnataka’s Shimoga district in custody.
The same day, an NIA press release said “unverified news items hamper effective investigations in the case”. The agency added that “any information on the identity of the witnesses may apart from hampering investigation may also put to risk the individuals being summoned”.
NIA added that it had identified the suspect who carried out the improvised explosive device (IED) explosion “as one Mussavir Hussain Shazib” and a “co-conspirator as Abdul Matheen Taahaa”, both from Shimoga.
NIA raided houses of the two suspects and a mobile store last week, according to an India Today report. Officials found out the BJP worker who has landed in the controversy sold his phone to the mobile shop owner, who then sold it to Muzammil Shareef, another key conspirator who has been arrested by NIA, the report said, quoting sources. This phone was used by Muzammil to contact Shazib and Taahaa, it added.
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