Viral Claim About Abdul Saleem's Arrest in Rameshwaram Café Blast Case is False

Abdul Saleem was arrested by the NIA in connection with a different case involving the Popular Front of India (PFI).

Fact-Check: Abdul Saleem has been arrested in connection to a different case. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

Right-wing social media users and publications have shared a post with a picture of a man in a skullcap, mentioning one Abdul Salim's arrest in connection to an explosion at Bengaluru's famous Rameshwaram Café in Karnataka.

About the blast: The blast took place at the café on Friday,1 March. At first, it was being investigated by the Bengaluru police but has now been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

• At least ten people were injured in the IED (improvised explosive device) blast, with the police detaining four individuals in connection to this issue.

• According to reports by the Deccan Herald and the News Minute which cited unnamed sources, the NIA has taken a jailed terror suspect into custody for questioning in connection to the case.

• The suspect has been identified as Minhaj alias Sulaiman, who was initially arrested in December 2023.

Who shared the claim?: Amongst the prominent were X (formerly Twitter) Izlamic Terrorist, Organiser Magazine, The Hindu Post, M9 and News Bharati.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

An archive of the post is here.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

An archive of the post can be found here. 

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is this true?: The claim is false.

• Both Bengaluru police and the NIA have made no arrests in connection to the case. According to source based reports by Deccan Herald and The News Minute, a suspect has been taken into custody by the NIA.

• Whereas, the person mentioned in these posts, Abdul Saleem, has been arrested by the NIA in connection with a different case involving the Popular Front of India (PFI) on 2 March.

How did we find out?: At first, we checked the social media handles of the commissioner of police, Bengaluru.

• We found a post on the official X account of the commissioner from 2 March which read the case had been handed over to City Crime Branch and "no arrests" were made.

In a subsequent post, the account requested media personnel to "not broadcast investigative details or fabricated reports."

• We also found news reports by the Hindustan Times and Deccan Herald which noted that the case had been taken over by the NIA.

• To check further, we looked at NIA's social media handles for case updates and found a post on their official X account from 6 March.

• The NIA announced a cash reward for information about an accused in the case.

• Apart from this information, there was no update about the Bengaluru blast case on their social media.

About Abdul Saleem: Upon looking further on its X account, the NIA posted a press release on 2 March about a different case.

The post mentioned Abdul Saleem, the state President of the Popular Front of India (PFI), who was arrested from Andhra Pradesh in connection to the Nizamuddin PFI case.

• The Nizamuddin PFI case involved "an anti-India conspiracy by the banned outfit to carry out acts of terror and violence." (sic.)

• The NIA further said that Saleem was involved in "radicalisation and recruitment of impressionable Muslim youth into the PFI." He also sent youth for training to learn about weaponry to advance the banned outfit's "anti-India agenda."

• To investigate further, we ran a Google reverse image search on the image shared in the viral posts.

• We came across a report by ETV Andhra Pradesh which used the same image as the viral posts. This report also mentioned that Saleem was arrested for his involvement in the Nizamuddin PFI case.

Here is a preview of the report. 

(Source: ETV/Screenshot) 

• Another keyword search on Google led us to a report by The Hindu, which also mentioned his arrest in the PFI investigation. The report said that he was one of the eleven persons who were chargesheeted.

The Quint has contacted the NIA and Bengaluru police for further information and the story will be updated when a response is recieved.

The Quint was unable to independently verify the identity of the suspect who has been taken into custody by the NIA.

Conclusion: A false claim has been made about arrests in connection to the Rameswaram café case. Abdul Saleem has been arrested for his involvement in a different case.

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