The officials searched the house of Kuppusamy and enquired him for more than eight hours, and the interrogation would continue on Thursday.
Coimbatore blast
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday, 24 April, conducted an enquiry with a farmer in connection with the Coimbatore car bomb explosion, police said.
According to police, the NIA officials have arrested 15 persons and enquired them in connection with the blast that took place in front of a temple —Arulmigu Kottai Sangameshwarar Thirukovil— on Eswaran Kovil Street in Coimbatore’s Ukkadam on 23 October 2022.
Based on their information, the officials visited Chinnasalatti village in Kadambur forest area in Erode district, and conducted an enquiry with Kuppusamy (65), a farmer, who is said to be very close to the suspected criminals, they said.
The officials searched the house of Kuppusamy and enquired him for more than eight hours, police said and added that the interrogation would continue on Thursday, 25 April, also.
In January 2024, the NIA filed a fresh charge sheet and named two more accused in the IS-inspired blast.
Mohammed Azarudeen alias Azar and Mohammed Idris, both residents of Coimbatore, have been named in the supplementary charge sheet and have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Explosive Substances Act, the spokesperson said.
With this, a total of 13 people have been charge-sheeted in this case till now. The rest were named in the prosecution complaints filed by the NIA in April and June last year.
The probe pertains to an explosion that took place in front of the ancient Arulmigu Kottai Sangameshwarar Thirukovil Temple at Eswaran Kovil Street in Ukkadam, Coimbatore on 23 October, 2022, through a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), allegedly driven by one Jamesha Mubeen.
Mubeen was “inspired” by hardcore IS ideology to commit this act of terror.
The NIA probe found, the spokesperson said, that Mubeen, along with Mohammed Azarudeen, Umar Faaruq, Sheikh Hidayathullah and Sanofer Ali, conspired to carry out a series of suicidal terror attacks in Coimbatore city following a conspiracy hatched in the forested area of Sathyamangalam region in Erode district of Tamil Nadu.
The attack was intended to wreak vengeance on ‘kafirs’ (non-believers), as stated in one of the self-made confessional videos by the accused a few days before the attack, the spokesperson said.
(With PTI inputs)
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