New Delhi: Five men were arrested in connection with an explosion that occurred in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore city on Sunday and a case has been registered against them under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Jemisha Mubeen was killed after a cylinder exploded in the car he was driving at 4 am on Sunday near the Kottai Eswaran Temple in the busy and communally sensitive Ukkadam area of Coimbatore on Sunday.
During the investigation, police recovered CCTV footage that showed five people taking out a gunny bag from Mubeen’s house around 11:25 pm on Saturday.
A press release issued by the Coimbatore police said a case has been registered in the Ukkadam police station over the incident. Though initially, the police did not divulge details about the case, they later said that a case was registered under UAPA.
The five persons who have been arrested in connection with the case were identified as Muhammad Talka, Muhammed Azharuddin, Muhammed Riyaz, Firoze Ismail and Muhammed Nawaz Ismail, all in their 20s.
With some of them being enquired by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019, the police were also probing their activities after that, Coimbatore city police commissioner V. Balakrishnan said.
Hours after the Tamil Nadu BJP questioned why the police had not specified the reasons for the arrest of the five and the sections under which they have been detained, Balakrishnan said that besides the UAPA, other IPC sections like conspiracy have also been included in the case.
Police are also probing if the man killed in the gas cylinder explosion in the car on Sunday, Jemisha Mubeen had any links with Mohammed Azharuddin, an accused in the Easter Sunday bomb blasts in a Sri Lankan Church in 2019, which killed over 250 people. The Kerala visits of some of the arrested are also being investigated.
Further, 75 kg of potassium nitrate, charcoal and aluminium powder have been recovered from Mubeen’s house, Balakrishnan added. These chemicals are used in making country bombs, police had said earlier.
“UAPA has been invoked since there has been an explosion,” Balakrishnan told reporters here.
Three of the arrested were seen in a CCTV footage, along with Mubeen, carrying two LPG cylinders and two small drums, the content of which has been sent for forensic examination, the commissioner said.
While the three had helped Mubeen carry the items “with knowledge,” another person was apprehended for coordination. One man was arrested for providing the car, Balakrishnan added.
Asked if the police were probing a possible terror angle, Balakrishnan reiterated that the UAPA has been invoked since there was an explosion and “all angles are being probed,” he said.
Sunday explosion
The state’s director general of police (DGP) C. Sylendra Babu had on Sunday said that “low-intensive” explosive material including potassium nitrate, used in making country bombs, were recovered from the house of Mubeen.
Mubeen was charred to death when a gas cylinder in the car in which he was travelling exploded on Sunday. Nails, marbles and some other items were found in the vehicle, the DGP had earlier said.
On Sunday, reports also said that Mubeen, an engineering graduate, had been questioned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019 for alleged links to the terror group that was responsible for the deadly Easter Sunday suicide blasts in Sri Lanka that same year. There was no case registered against him, however.
Opposition demands an independent probe
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) interim general secretary and Tamil Nadu leader of opposition K. Palaniswami called for an independent probe into the matter, to ascertain if the incident was an accident or a conspiracy.
Training his guns against chief minister M.K. Stalin, who holds the home portfolio, Palaniswami claimed that whenever the DMK assumes power in Tamil Nadu, “instances of bomb blasts become routine and recurring”. He alleged that the incident exposed the lack of proper functioning of the police and the intelligence department.
The police should probe the matter without any political pressure to ascertain if it was an accident or a conspiracy and whether there were any anti-social elements involved in it, he demanded.
The BJP state unit president K. Annamalai also blamed “intelligence failure” for the incident and questioned why the police did not specify the reason for the arrest of the five persons or reveal the sections of the Indian Penal Code IPC under which the case has been registered.
Annamalai said he has written to Union home minister Amit Shah over the Sunday explosion.
(With PTI inputs)