Picture from the spot where Jameesha Mubin's car exploded outside the temple.
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday, 27 October, passed orders directing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the probe into the Coimbatore car blast case in which 29-year-old Jameesha Mubin was killed after an LPG cylinder inside his Maruti-800 car exploded on on the eve of Diwali, near Kottai Eswaran temple in Coimbatore.
The order, as is procedure, came a day after the Tamil Nadu government decided to recommend the transfer of probe to the NIA from the Coimbatore police. Officials said that the investigation will be formally handed over to the central agency on Friday.
Importantly, the police on Thursday arrested a sixth person — 28-year-old K Afsar Khan — in connection with the case. According to senior officials, Afsar is a relative of the deceased Mubin, and “is the most important person” after the latter in terms of plotting a suspected terror attack.
Five other alleged associates of Mubin were arrested on Monday night for helping to transport the explosive materials and for arranging the Maruti 800 car which later exploded.
A police officer who spoke to South First said that Afsar had been involved in the conspiracy for around two years, and that he helped Mubin procure and prepare the explosive materials which were used to make crude bombs.
Picture of Afsar Khan who was arrested by the police on Thursday.
The Coimbatore police had recovered around 75 kgs of low-intensity explosive materials such as potassium nitrate, aluminium powder, sulphur and charcoal from Mubin’s house after his death.
According to the police officer, most of these substances are available for sale in the open market, and they were procured by Afsar through certain e-commerce websites. The cops have written to the e-commerce platforms to provide more details of the purchases.
The official also claimed that some quantities of explosives were bought from Kerala as well. The labels on the packets of some of the explosive substances suggested this, he said.
Firefighters at the scene of the Coimbatore blast. (Supplied)
Meanwhile, the police are also intensifying its drive to identify and seize unclaimed vehicles parked in sensitive areas of Coimbatore. For example, in the last two days, the police identified 10 vehicles in the Ukkadam area, the place where Mubin was staying. Of this, three vehicles are unclaimed and seven of them, though they were claimed, did not have the required paperwork.
The forensic report on the digital devices used by Mubin is also expected to be filed soon.
Officials believe that details from the forensic analysis may further help them in unearthing the larger conspiracy hatched by Mubin and others.
Speaking of how Mubin was radicalised, the police officer claimed that apart from attending the bayan (sermon) classes held by the module of Azharuddin, a man who was arrested for his alleged ties with Zahran Hashmi, one of the masterminds of the Easter bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, Mubin was also someone who read extensively.
“He read up and consumed a lot of content which propagated the extremist ideology,” the official told South First while describing Mubin as a “self-radicalised” man.
The official claimed that even though members from the Muslim community did try to speak to Mubin a few times to change his mindset, they were not successful.
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