Tamil Nadu govt recommends transfer of Coimbatore blast case to NIA
The Tamil Nadu Police had invoked the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and arrested five men – associates of Jameesha Mubin, who was charred to death while driving a Maruti 800 in which an LPG cylinder exploded near a temple in suspicious circumstances
The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday decided to recommend the transfer of the Coimbatore blast case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), three days after the car blast rocked the southern state.
The decision was taken earlier in the day during a high-level meeting chaired by chief minister MK Stalin with director general of police (DGP) Sylendra Babu, chief secretary Irai Anbu, home secretary Phanindra Reddy, and ADGP (intelligence) Davidson Devasirvatham, among others.
The Tamil Nadu Police had invoked the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and arrested five men – associates of Jameesha Mubin, who was charred to death while driving a Maruti 800 in which an LPG cylinder exploded near a temple in suspicious circumstances.
“Keeping in mind the possible national and international ramifications, the meeting decided to recommend to the Union government to direct the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the investigation in the case,” an official statement from the government said.
The NIA had questioned Mubin in 2019 after he and five other accused in the Coimbatore blast case were in touch with Mohammad Azharuddin, 32, who is currently in jail for being involved in the dastardly Easter Sunday terror attack in Sir Lanka in 2019.
Around 4 am on October 23 one of the two LPG cylinders inside a Maruthi 800 car exploded, killing the driver and main accused Mubin on the spot. All five are allegedly Mubin’s accomplices.
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The incident took place a day before Diwali near the Kottai Eswaran temple in Ukkadam, a communally sensitive neighbourhood in Coimbatore, prompting top police officials including the DGP to rush to the spot. CCTV footage showed that Mubin was helped by a few others to carry two LPG cylinders and three cans from his house.
On Monday night, the Coimbatore police arrested five people – Mohammad Thalka (25), Mohammad Asarudheen (25), Muhammad Riyaz (27), Feroz Ismail (27) and Mohammad Navaz Ismail (27). They allegedly helped Mubin transport the explosives and also provided him with the Maruthi 800.
The police also seized 75 kg of low explosive materials from Mubin’s house, such as potassium nitrate, aluminium powder, charcoal, and sulphur.
The state government on Wednesday also decided to set up three new police stations in Coimbatore in Karumbu Kadai, Koundampalayam, and Sundarapuram for additional surveillance.
“The meeting decided to appoint more officers to the intelligence department and to provide security to people who give inputs about people who indulge in anti-social activities,” the statement said.
Tamil Nadu is also planning to constitute a special force to prevent such incidents in the future, and set up modern surveillance cameras in major cities and densely populated areas like Coimbatore.
