Coimbatore car blast: 7-member NIA team launch probe, seek info from temple priest 

CHENNAI: A seven-member team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) led by Superintendent Sreejith and Inspector Vignesh and a team of five officers are taking information from S Sundaresan, priest of the Sangameswarar temple, Ukkadam who is the complainant.

Jameesha Mubin, a 25-year-old engineer, was charred to death in a car explosion on October 23 early morning near the Sangameswarar temple. The Diwali eve car blast shocked Coimbatore. The Tamil Nadu police, who initially probed the case, apparently found that the car blast was not a freak accident and that there was more to it. The police team conducted a raid on the house of one Mubin. They  recovered chemicals like potassium nitrate, sulphur and aluminum powder, and charcoal stocked in his residence in large quantities.

Further investigation led to the arrest of six people who were the accomplices of the deceased Jameesha Mubin. The arrested are Mohamed Azharuddin, Firoze Ismail, Mohammed Talha, Mohammed Riyas, Afsar Khan, and Mohammed Nawas Ismail. Of this Mohammed, Talha is the son of Nawab Khan, brother of S.A. Basha, the founder of the dreaded Islamist organisation, Al- Umma that executed a serial blast in Coimbatore on February 14, 1998, in which 56 people lost their lives and more than 200 grievously injured.

The NIA team that arrived in Coimbatore has already conducted a preliminary investigation and has gathered a lot of information on the background of the accused as well as their phone contacts.

Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi had lashed out against the state government for delaying recommending an NIA investigation into the case.