One held for hurling petrol bomb at RSS man’s house

COIMBATORE: The Kuniyamuthur police arrested a 29-year-old man on Tuesday for hurling a petrol bomb at the house of an RSS functionary on Vinayakar Kovil Street at Kovaipudur here on September 22, 2022.
A police officer identified the accused as I Mohammed Shafi, of Selvam Nagar at Kuniyamuthur in the city. He was working with a textiles shop. Two of his associates wanted in the case are on the run.
The officer said the incident occurred after the Union government banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its allied organizations in September 2022. “Infuriated, PFI and SDPI cadres hurled petrol bombs at six places in the city. Stones were hurled at TNSTC buses at two separate incidents and two shops were attacked with tyres that were set on fire. We solved nine cases and arrested the accused.”
However, police were not able to trace the whereabouts of the people who hurled the petrol bomb at the residence of RSS functionary S Ananda Kalyanakrishnan, 67. “Shafi changed his mobile phone and SIM cards. He also shifted rental houses often. On Tuesday, we got a tip that he was at Selvam Nagar and we arrested him,” the officer said.
A team led by assistant police commissioner Ragupathi and inspector Baskaran had been trying to trace the whereabouts of Shafi for the past five months.