Coimbatore car blast | NIA arrests three men for funding attack 

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday arrested three persons for alleged involvement in the funding of the car blast that occurred in front of Sangameswarar temple at Kottaimedu in Coimbatore on October 23, 2022.

A release from NIA said that it unearthed the terror financing angle in the case with the arrest of Aboo Hanifa, Saran Mariappan and Pavas Rahman, all hailing from Coimbatore, taking the total number of accused in the case to 18.

NIA has filed four chargesheets against 14 accused before the Special Court for NIA cases at Poonamallee in Chennai in connection with the blast, in which a self-styled Islamic State operative and suicide bomber Jamesha Mubeen (29) was killed.

According to the agency, investigations revealed that the three accused had colluded with one other to provide funds for the commission of the car blast.

Hanifa had been working as a faculty in Kovai Arabic College, where Mubeen and other arrested accused persons got radicalised in the Islamic State ideology.

Before carrying out the attack, Mubeen had sworn allegiance by giving ‘bayath’ to Abu-Al-Hasan Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi, the then self-styled Calipha of the Islamic State, the agency said.

It added that an offshoot case registered with respect to the radicalisation had separately led to the arrest and charge-sheeting of four accused by the NIA. Further investigation by the agency is on.

Published - October 21, 2024 08:45 pm IST