TN police raids premises of 4 persons linked to Coimbatore blast suspects

The police, which has recovered over 75 kg of explosives, hasn’t yet ruled out terror angle to the incident

The Tamil Nadu Police on Saturday searched the premises of four persons, who are allegedly linked to the suspects in the October 23 Coimbatore car blast, in Tiruvarur district in the Cauvery Delta region, even as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) formally took over the probe.

A police team searched the residences of Ahmed Imtiaz, Sajid Ahmed, Rizwan, and Azharuddin in Muthupet in Tiruvarur district on Saturday in connection with the blast inside a car in Coimbatore in which the occupant, Jameesha Mubin, was killed instantly.

Sources told DH that the four persons came on their radar as they were earlier examined by the NIA in 2019 in connection with their alleged links with extremist elements. “The searches were conducted to find out where they are linked to the Coimbatore blast suspects,” a source said.

Police have so far arrest six persons for allegedly helping Jameesha Mubin in transporting the chemicals and procure explosives via popular e-commerce platforms. The source said the police is likely to conduct similar searches in several districts in the state.

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Mubin was killed in the early hours of October 23, on the eve of Deepavali, when his car exploded near the Kottai Eswaran Temple in communally-sensitive Ukkadam in Coimbatore.

The Tamil Nadu police, which has recovered over 75 kg of explosives from Mubin’s residence and his associates, hasn’t yet ruled 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 police in Coimbatore and near-by areas are looking for abandoned vehicles and checking them as a precautionary measure. The city is being guarded by over 3,000 policemen.

NIA, to which the case was transferred on October 27, has filed a First Information Report (FIR) in which it says Mubin was completely burnt and the blast caused damage to the name board of the Kottai Eswaran Temple and shop in front of it.

The FIR says 109 articles, including Potassium Nitrate, Black Powder, match box, cracker fuse length of about 2 meters, Nitro Glycerine, 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 NIA is also investigating whether Mubin set off the explosives after he saw police at a distance, or the car went up in flames after one of the LPG cylinders in the vehicle exploded.

The incident comes 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.