Six accused persons out of 18 have been absconding among which Rahman Sadiq has been nabbed, said a NIA release.

In December 2019 ,   the NIA had announced a reward of Rs.1 lakh each for information leading to the arrest of six prime suspects identified as M Rahman Sadiq, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Abdul Majith, Bhurkhanudeen, Shahul Hameed and Nafeel Hassan, all hailing from Thanjavur.

Five of them are yet to be tapped.

The NIA took over the case from the Tamil Nadu Police in April 2019. The NIA’s investigation had  revealed that the group of accused men hatched a criminal conspiracy and murdered Ramalingam after he had an altercation with the Dawah team linked to Popular Front of India (PFI) on February 5 in 2019 at Pakku Vinayagam Thopu village.