New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested the 13th accused linked with the 2022 ISIS-inspired Coimbatore car bomb blast incident, the agency said on Friday.
Since the NIA re-registered the First Information Report (FIR) on October 27 last year, Mohammed Azarudeen alias Azar is the 13th person to be arrested in the case.
Interestingly, the NIA said, Azarudeen is already in Jail at the Viyyur high-security prison in Kerala's Thrissur in another case.
As per the anti-terror agency, Azarudeen was arrested and chargesheeted earlier in the Tamil Nadu ISIS module case (RC-02/2019/NIA/KOC) and was subsequently sent to judicial custody.
"Investigations have revealed that Azarudeen had previously taken secret ‘bayan’ classes along with the accused in the Coimbatore blast case, including Jamesha Mubeen, the vehicle’s driver who was killed in the explosion. It was at these classes that all the accused were indoctrinated with ISIS ideology and motivated to commit violent acts of terror," said the NIA.
During the course of further Investigation, NIA further found that Jamesha Mubeen, along with two other arrested accused, had met Azarudeen in prison. "They had then hatched the Sathyamangalam conspiracy (the car bomb blast plan was concretised in the Sathyamangalam forests) to plan and prepare a terror attack to revenge Azar's arrest and to get him released from Jail through a Jail-attack."
The Coimbatore car bomb blast took place on October 23 last year in front of an ancient Temple, Arulmigu Kottai Sangameshwarar Thirukovil, at Eswaran Kovil Street, Ukkadam, Coimbatore. The Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosives Device (VBIED) was being driven by the deceased accused Jamesha Mubeen.
Mubeen and his associates were inspired by hardcore ISIS ideology to conspire and commit the act of terror after taking ‘bayath’ or allegiance to its self-proclaimed Caliph Abu-Al-Hasan Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi.
As per NIA investigations, the accused had intended to take revenge on the Kafirs (non-believers of Islam) through this terror attack.
NIA has so far filed two chargesheets in the case before the NIA court, Poonamallee, Chennai. Six accused were chargesheeted on April 20 this year and five on June 2. The 12th accused, Mohammed Idris, was arrested on August 2 this year. (ANI)
