Twenty years after the blasts at 19 places across the city, the Crime Branch-CID (Special Investigation Division) is yet to arrest three of the accused. Though more than 100 people, including key accused, are now behind bars, B Mujibur Rehman alias Muji from Oppanakara Street, Jagubar Sadiq alias Sadiq alias ‘Tailor’ Raja alias Valarntha Raja from Bilal estate at South Ukkadam and N P Noohu alias Rasheed alias Mankavu Rasheed from Kozhikode in Kerala, accused of mobilising people for the attacks and executing the bomb blast conspiracy remain at large.
On February 14, 1998, thousands of police personnel were deployed in the city for BJP leader L K Advani’s visit to DB Road at RS Puram for election campaigning. Four bombs kept in different pushcarts placed at least 300 metres from the public meeting venue began to explode at 3.50 pm. Advani was the target, but his arrival had been delayed at the Coimbatore international airport.
Meanwhile, bombs planted in various parts of the city went off one by one and all the injured people were taken to the CMCH, where too a bomb went off. The city police arrested 181 people, including Al-umma founder SA Basha, and on February 20, 1998 the case was transferred to the CB-CID (SID). After spending 11 years as remand prisoners in various prisons in the state, more than 100 people were acquitted by a special court. Seventeen people were sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, the CB-CID (SID) could not find the whereabouts of the three accused. Tailor Raja was a hardcore Al-Umma cadre and he played key role in the serial bomb blast. Police said he was facing a murder case in the Nagore police station in 1996 and two murder cases in the Race Course police station in Coimbatore and the Karimedu police station in Madurai in 1996 -97. Raja had rented a house at Vallal Nagar where the bombs were made and stored. He had distributed bombs to a few cadres of Al-umma on February 12, 13 and 14, 1998.
Mujibur Rehman, who had studied up to Class VI, had played a key role in planting bombs. He was the state spokesperson of the Al-umma and mobilised activists in Coimbatore. He arranged push carts to plant bombs and he was also present on February 14, 1998 when a four-member suicide squad was sent to the BJP meeting venue on DB Road at RS Puram. The police have no information about NP Noohu.
"We have been working to collect intelligence about the three absconding accused. We are collecting information from the Kerala intelligence agency and intelligence section (IS), special intelligence cell (SIC) and special intelligence unit (SIC) about the absconding persons," said a senior officer from the CB-CID (SID).
