Twenty years after the Coimbatore serial blasts, police nabbed a key accused on Monday evening.
The Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) special investigation team arrested N.P. Noohu alias Rasheed alias Mankavu Rasheed (44), of Panniyankara Village, Kozhikode, Kerala who was wanted in the Coimbatore serial bomb blast case.
In 1998, Coimbatore City B1 Bazaar police station registered the case against him, among other suspects, for offences including criminal conspiracy, murder and attempt to murder under IPC and provisions of Explosive Substances Act 1908 and Arms Act.
The accused had been absconding since the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts and was hiding abroad for the last 20 years. He was declared as a proclaimed offender by the Court.
He is being interrogated.
On February 14, 1998, serial bomb blasts coinciding with the visit of senior BJP leader and then party president L.K. Advani had rocked the industrial city of Coimbatore, leaving 58 people dead and over 200 injured.
Among the locations where bombs went off was the venue where an election meeting of Advani was scheduled.
(With inputs from PTI)