Centre urges chief ministers to expedite terror probes

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has asked the chief ministers of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to ensure speeding up of probes into terror cases, as such action would be the “best recipe to prevent future attacks”.

In separate letters to Siddaramaiah in Karnataka, O Panneerselvam in Tamil Nadu and Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP, Singh said the arrest of the guilty was the best way to prevent more attacks by the same outfit or individuals.

“I would urge upon you to personally look into the cases and ensure that the investigating agencies make all-out efforts to achieve a breakthrough," he said in the letters.

Singh reminded Siddaramaiah that no one has been arrested in the case related to the IED blast in Bengaluru on December 28, 2014, in which one woman was killed and three others injured, despite investigation by the state police.

He told Chouhan that the five SIMI men who escaped from Madhya Pradesh's Khandwa jail on October 1, 2013, are still at large, “more than a year” since the incident.
There are reasons to believe that this group had carried out bomb blasts and other crimes in different parts of the country, he added.

“In fact, this group has emerged as a major security challenge to the country, and has managed to successfully to evade arrest by the law enforcement agencies of different states,” he said.

The minister, in his letter to Panneerselvam, said the May 1, 2014, blast at Chennai railway station, in which one person was killed and 14 others injured, remains unsolved despite the CB-CID investigation.

Singh also offered the chief ministers help from the Central government.