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SIT nabs 7 Coimbatore blasts accused in AP

The Rajahmundry second additional judicial magistrate Rajani today granted the Tamil Nadu police, the transfer remand of the seven activists of the banned Al-Umma outfit, who were arrested in connection with the Coimbatore serial blast case yesterday.

A top police official in Hyderabad said the magistrate endorsed the request of the police for the production of all the seven accused in the court concerned in Coimbatore.

All the seven accused were taken to Coimbatore by the Sircar Express under heavy police escort.

Earlier, in a major breakthrough, seven of the accused in the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts case, including Mohamed Ansari, state general secretary of the banned fundamentalist organisation Al-Umma and Nawab Khan, younger brother of the outfit's chief S A basha, were arrested in Rajahmundry town of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday.

While two of the accused were apprehended at Rajahmundry railway station, five others were arrested at their hide-outs in that town.

Two countrymade revolvers, a foreign knife and some explosive substances were recovered from the accused.

The arrests were effected by a Special Investigation Team of the Tamil Nadu CB-CID police with the assistance of the Andhra Pradesh police.

With this, the number of arrests carried out in the blast cases has risen to 173. A total of 190 accused had been identified so far.

The blasts on February 14 in the textile city of Coimbatore, which occurred hours before the then BJP president L K Advani was scheduled to address an election meeting, had claimed 60 lives and left over 200 injured.

The accused would be taken to Tamil Nadu after being produced in court, the sources said.

Five accused in the serial blasts case had escaped the police dragnet hours before the Tamil Nadu police and their Andhra Pradesh counterparts raided their apartment in Vijayawada city a few months ago. The police had recovered timer devices, explosives, some ammunition and wigs, from there.

Since then the Tamil Nadu and AP police have been closely coordinating their hunt for the accused. The present raid was organised in coordination with the local police and intelligence agencies.

The swift SIT action was not resisted by the accused, it was stated.

Addressing a crowded press conference, SIT superintendent of police Thamaraikannan said all the accused would be produced before a magistrate in Vijayawada, after which they would be taken to Coimbatore for further interrogation.

He said the accused had moved over to Rajahmundry four months ago in the wake of strict surveillance at Vijayawada. They had rented an apartment in the posh Danavaipeta area in the town under the guise of carrying out business in hire purchase.

The accused came on their own and did not have any local contact, he added.

Thamaraikannan said two highly powerful explosives and six explosives, two 0.22 bore country-made revolvers, 50 cartridges, fuse wires, ordinary detonators, Al-Umma literature and some documents connected with the serial blasts, besides Rs 20,000 cash were recovered from them.

Thamaraikannan said those arrested included Basha's brother-in-law, Mohammad Zubair, Yusuf, Syed Mohammed Bukhari and Hidayat Ali Khan.

Ansari, Siddiq Ali and three other accused were carrying a reward of Rs 200,000 on their heads.

The East Godavari district superintendent of police Vinay Ranjan said Siddiq and Yusuf were arrested at the station.

A press release issued by the inspector general of police (SIT) said Ansari was the prime moving force for the execution of the blasts and for formation/deputing of the "suicide squad".

A TADA accused along with Basha and others, Ansari had organised the purchase of cars, arms and ammunition through Oom Babu of Kerala, who had already been arrested, it added.

The release said Ansari was the prime instigator among the Al-Umma leaders. The killing of 18 Muslims on November 30 last was precipitated by his high-handed conduct the previous day, which had resulted in the stabbing to death of traffic constable Selvaraj.

Ansari, along with Nawab Khan had also provided the finance for procuring explosives from Karnakata and finalised the list of targets received from Basha. He had also attended several meetings at Coimbatore and Madras, in which crucial decisions relating to the execution of the conspiracy were taken, the release added.

It said Mohammed Zubair, brother-in-law of Basha, who had been absconding for the last several years, was involved in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters bomb blast case at Madras, the murder of Hindu Munnani leader Rajagopal, the Veeraganesh murder case in Coimbatore and other cases.

It said Zubair was involved in the conspiracy for the Coimbatore blasts and had organised shelters for certain absconding accused at Vijayawada.

It added that Nawab Khan, who had organised several meetings at Coimbatore in which the Al-Umma cadres were instigated to avenge the killings of 18 Muslims, had played a significant role in assigning specific tasks for the execution of the conspiracy.

Nawab Khan had also made payments for procurement of explosives along with Ansari. He and Ozir, who had already been arrested, Mujibur Rehman (currently absconding) and Basith (already arrested) were instrumental in preparing and despatching the "suicide squad" from the kabristan at Chunnambukalvai, where the bodies of 17 of the 18 Muslims were buried., it added.

The release said Siddiq Ali, who had also been booked under TADA had played a significant role in precipitating the conspiracy for the retaliatory action at Coimbatore. He had accompanied Al-Umma vice-president Tajudeen alias Abu Mujahid (already arrested), during one of his trips to meet People's Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Madhani in Kerala to procure high grade explosives and revolvers.

Syed Mohamed Bukhari, who was on bail in the RSS bomb blast case, was staying with Basha at Madras when the conspiracy for the Coimbatore blasts was hatched.

Hidayat Ali Khan, younger brother of Mahmood Ali Khan, who was the prime procurer of explosives for the serial blasts and some other earlier major blasts in the state, had played a role in transportation of explosives from Karnataka.

The SIT, CB-CID had filed the chargesheet against 166 accused on September 28 last in the serial blast cases. Of the 166, eight accused had died and 13 were absconding. Mohamed Ansari, Nawab Khan, Siddiq Ali and Yusuf have already been chargesheeted in the serial blasts cases, the release said.

Siddiq had also planted the car bomb at CMC hospital along with Mohamed Muthu (already arrested) and harboured other accused. He had made petrol bombs on February 13 last along with Ashraf Ali (already arrested) and procured country-made bombs from Kerala and was also involved in the purchase of cars for the car-bombs.

UNI

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