COIMBATORE: A sixth suspect was arrested Thursday in the Coimbatore car blast case, coinciding with the NIA formally taking over the probe from the police on Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin‘s recommendation, DGP Sylendra Babu said.
The arrested man, identified as 28-year-old electrician K Afsar Khan, had procured material like potassium nitrate, aluminium powder, sulphur and charcoal through online e-commerce sites over the past two years to make explosive devices, investigators said.
Afsar is a relative of Jameesha Mubin, the 29-year-old engineering graduate at the wheel of the car that exploded near the Sangameswarar temple at Kottaimedu on Diwali-eve, killing him instantly.
“We had seized 75kg of potassium nitrate and other chemical substances from Mubin’s house. Afsar and a few others helped Mubin procure materials for explosives through ecommerce sites,” an officer said.
Coimbatore police also quizzed Mubin’s wife Nazrath with the help of a sign-anguage interpreter as she is deaf and mute. Police teams searched 10 premises belonging to suspected IS sympathisers through the day.
The NIA’s branch office in Chennai registered an FIR in connection with the car explosion involving Mubin, whom the NIA had interrogated in 2019 for his alleged links with some people wanted in terror and other cases.
“We have extracted information crucial to the blast probe from the five people who had been arrested earlier. I appreciate Coimbatore city police commissioner Balakrishnan and his team for acting swiftly and arresting another suspect,” the DGP said. “The police will now assist the NIA in the investigation.”
An NIA team had met senior police officers for a briefing on the findings so far even before Stalin officially recommended that the probe be handed over to the agency given the likelihood of “national and international ramifications”.
The car explosion at 4am last Sunday was initially presumed to have been an accidental one caused by one of two LPG cylinders in the vehicle. Investigators later got wind of a suspected plot involving deceased Jameesha Mubin and the arrested suspects to carry out terror attacks at five locations within the city.
CCTV footage purportedly shows three of the men now in custody, all allegedly linked to IS, helping Mubin place two LPG cylinders and three drums filled with “light explosives” in the car around 11.30pm on Saturday. One of the suspects had been deported from the UAE in 2020 on India’s request. Another’s father is an accused in the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts that killed 58 and a member of the banned Al-Umma.