Basha might throw more light on Malleswaram blast, say City cops

The Bangalore police hope that interrogating K Sahul Hameed alias Paravai Basha, who was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police on Saturday, would throw more light on the bomb blast that took place near the BJP office in Malleswaram a year ago.

Basha has been named an accused in the blast case and is said to have arranged the logistics and supplied explosives to those who executed it. The Bangalore police would seek his custody in the coming days.

A team of CB-CID of Tamil Nadu, which is probing a case pertaining to planting of a pipe bomb allegedly targeting senior BJP leader L K Advani in Tamil Nadu in 2011, arrested Basha near Punalur in Kollam district in Kerala on Saturday.

A local court in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu on Monday remanded him in police custody.“We contacted the Tamil Nadu police and confirmed the news of Basha’s arrest. We have not taken any decision regarding sending a team to the neighbouring state to seek his custody at this point in time. The Tamil Nadu police are currently conducting the investigation. But we will certainly seek his custody,” Bangalore’s Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Pranab Mohanty told Deccan Herald on Monday. “It is not just handling logistics, Basha is also one of the prime conspirators. We need to take his custody and his interrogation might throw more light on unseen hands. The police will quiz him regarding the entire conspiracy and the whereabouts of Aboobakkar Siddiqui, the key conspirator, and three others who are still at large,” he said.

At large

The police believe Aboobakkar is on the run changing his hideouts. Basha’s arrest, his interrogation and subsequent disclosures will help the police to nab Aboobakkar, the police said.

The Bangalore police identified 20 people as accused in the Malleswaram case and were able to arrest 15 of them. Five others, including Shamsuddin, Ali Khan Kutty, Paravai Basha and Aboobakkar Siddiqui, are yet to be arrested.

Basha, a resident of Melapalayam in Tirunelveli district, was evading arrest for the last eight months. On apprehending him, police seized from him 17.25 kg of explosives, including 136 gel packs, 141 detonators, a pistol with 50 rounds of ammunition, besides Rs six lakh in cash raised in the name of Charitable Trust for Minorities.

Asked whether he would be handed over to the Karnataka police, a senior Tamil Nadu officer said, "If our counterparts in Karnataka approach us, we may do so with the court’s permission. But that will happen only after our interrogation is over.”

“He is in the custody of the Tamil Nadu police and we want to know about the conspiracy behind the explosives seized. We will also interrogate him to ascertain whether he had any role in the murders of leaders of various Hindu outfits in the State and to know about the whereabouts of some of the absconding terror suspects,” the officer added.