NIA conducts raids at 45 places across Tamil Nadu in connection with Coimbatore blast

Two weeks after taking over the probe into the car blast in Coimbatore on the eve of Deepavali, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday conducted raids at 45 locations across Tamil Nadu, including in Coimbatore, Chennai, and Madurai.

Sources told DH that as many as 20 of the 45 locations where the searches are being conducted are in Coimbatore, while over a half-a-dozen places in Chennai have come under the radar. The searches are also being conducted in Madurai, Ramanathapuram, and other towns in the state.

A source said the searches are in connection with the October 23 car blast in which the vehicle’s occupant, Jameesha Mubin, was killed instantly.

“We are conducted searches on the premises of people who are connected to the six persons arrested by the Tamil Nadu Police. New people have also come under the radar and their houses are also being searched,” the source said, adding members of banned organisations are also being probed.

In Chennai, several house in Washermanpet area in north Chennai were being searched since Thursday morning. This is the first search operation by the NIA after the blast case was formally transferred to the Central agency on October 27 by the Union Government on the recommendation of the Tamil Nadu government.

The NIA had on October 30 inspected the Kottai Eswaran or Sangameshwarar Temple in Coimbatore’s communally sensitive Ukkadam near which the car exploded and examined the priests, one of whom is the complainant in the case.

Jameesha Mubin, the 29-year-old engineering graduate, was killed when one of the LPG cylinders in his Maruti 800 exploded just yards away from the temple on October 23. Police suspect that Mubin stopped the car after seeing police on duty near the temple and the vehicle exploded minutes later.

Six persons, including Mubin’s relative, were arrested by the police within days of the incident for their links to the deceased. Three of those arrested are seen with Mubin, in a CCTV footage, helping him carry the LPG cylinder and drums from his house before loading them into the car.

Afsar Khan, Mubin’s relative, was arrested on the charges of procuring explosives via popular e-commerce platforms.

In the FIR filed on October 28, the NIA said 109 articles, including Potassium Nitrate, Black Powder, match box, cracker fuse length of about 2 meters, nitroglycerine, PET powder, aluminium powder, and 9-volt battery, were recovered from Mubin’s residence.

Materials like packing tape, hand gloves, note books with details of Islamic ideology and details about ‘jihad’ were also recovered, the NIA said in the FIR.

The Tamil Nadu police, which recovered over 75 kg of explosives from Mubin’s residence and his associates, refused to rule out terror angle to the incident. It also said Mubin, from whose residence maps of Coimbatore city was found, could have transported the explosives in his car with an intention to carry out terror attacks in the future.

The incident came weeks after an alert was sounded across the country following a ban on Popular Front of India (PFI). Coimbatore has always been communally sensitive, especially after the 1998 blasts killed 58 people in which BJP leader L K Advani had a miraculous escape.