The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted searches at 41 locations in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka in connection with the 2022 LPG cylinder and IED blasts in Coimbatore and Mangaluru.
While 32 locations were searched looking for clues into the October 23 Coimbatore blast which killed the occupant of the car in which the LPG cylinder exploded, the remaining eight locations were related to the Mangaluru IED blast case.
NIA took over both cases from the respective state police forces who investigated the blasts in the beginning. While Tamil Nadu police picked up six persons for their alleged involvement in the Coimbatore blasts within days of the incident, the NIA has so far arrested five persons since taking over the probe on October 30, 2022.
As many as 14 of the 32 locations searched in connection with the Coimbatore blast case fell in the industrial city, Chennai, Tirunelveli (three each), Nilgiris and Tiruvannamalai (two each), and Tiruchirapalli, Dindigul, Tenkasi, Krishnagiri, Kanyakumari, Mayiladuthurai, Thoothukudi, and Ernakulam (one each).
One in each location in Coimbatore and Mysuru, two in Tiruppur, and four in Ernakulam came under the radar in connecting with the Mangaluru blast.
“Searches conducted today have led to the seizure of a large number of digital devices and cash amounting to Rs 4 lakh in the two cases. Further investigations in these two cases are in progress,” the NIA said. Sources said the searches were also conducted to find out whether the two blasts were linked to each other.
Jameesha Mubin, a 29-year-old engineering graduate, was killed when one of the LPG cylinders in his Maruti 800 exploded just yards away from the famous Kottai Eswaran temple in communally-sensitive Ukkadam in Coimbatore on October 23.
Police suspect that Mubin stopped the car after seeing police on duty near the temple and the vehicle exploded minutes later. The NIA says Mubin was planning to carry out a suicide attack cause extensive damage to the temple complex with the “intention to strike terror among a section of the society.”
The Coimbatore incident came weeks after an alert was sounded across the country following a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI). Coimbatore has always been communally-sensitive especially after the 1998 blasts that killed 58 people in which BJP leader L K Advani had a miraculous escape.
The NIA formally took over the investigation into the case on October 30 by visiting the temple and interacting with the priests. Police and NIA believe that Mubin may have been on the way to one of his “target places” but nothing has been proved conclusively.
As many as 109 articles, including Potassium Nitrate, Black Powder, matchbox, cracker fuse length of about 2 meters, Nitro Glycerine, PET powder, Aluminium powder, and 9-volt battery, were recovered from Mubin’s residence, after the blast.
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