4 held for murdering ex-convict in serial bomb blast case

Coimbatore: Four people were arrested on Tuesday for murdering an ex-convict in the Coimbatore serial bomb blast case at Podanur in the early hours of Monday after he threatened them at knifepoint when they questioned him about stealing a goat from one of their houses.
Police said another two accused in the case were on the run and three special teams were deployed to nab them.
The Podanur police identified the arrested as 28-year-old S Abudhakir, his younger brother 23-year-old S Mohammed Ali and his friends A Mohammed Nazif and A Mohammed Ansar, both aged 24 years. A police officer said all the four were daily wage labourers from Nanjundapuram Itteri near Kurichi in the city.
The officer said M Sait alias Sait Bakrudeen, the ex-convict in the serial bomb blast case, had stolen a goat from the house of Abudhakir in the early hours of Monday and taken it to a mutton stall. “The arrested four followed him to the mutton stall and questioned him about stealing the goat. Sait, however, threatened them at knifepoint.”
Meanwhile, Abudhakir’s father Sulaiman alerted police, who intervened in the issue. “We asked Sait, who was under the influence of alcohol, to go home and come to police station in the morning. While he left the place, the four, along with two of their friends, followed him and assaulted him with an iron rod and wooden log,” the officer said.
Sait’s family members found him unconscious with severe injuries near the house in the morning and took him to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital, where he died without responding to treatment. The Podanur police, who had initially registered a case under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), changed the Section to 302 (murder) of the IPC after Sait’s death.