NIA makes fresh arrest in IS-inspired Coimbatore car blast case

New Delhi: National Investigation Agency (NIA) made a fresh arrest in connection with the IS-inspired car IED bomb blast which took place in Coimbatore, officials said on Friday.

NIA said that the accused Mohammed Azarudeen alias Azar is the thirteenth person to be arrested in the case.

Azarudeen was already in jail at the Viyyur high-security prison in Thrissur, Kerala, in another case. He was arrested and chargesheeted earlier in the Tamil Nadu IS module case and was subsequently sent to judicial custody.

"Investigations have revealed that Azarudeen had previously taken secret ‘bayan’ classes along with the accused in the Coimbatore blast case, including Jamesha Mubeen, the vehicle’s driver who was killed in the explosion. It was at these classes that all the accused were indoctrinated with IS ideology and motivated to commit violent acts of terror," said the official.

NIA has also found that Jamesha Mubeen, along with two other arrested accused, had met Mohammed Azarudeen alias Azar in prison. They had then hatched the Sathyamangalam conspiracy (the car bomb blast plan was concretised in the Sathyamangalam forests) to plan and prepare a terror attack to revenge Azar's arrest and to get him released from jail through a jail-attack.

The Coimbatore car bomb blast had taken place on October 23, last year in front of an ancient temple, Arulmigu Kottai Sangameshwarar Thirukovil, at Eswaran Kovil Street, Ukkadam, Coimbatore. The Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosives Device (VBIED) was being driven by the deceased accused Jamesha Mubeen.

Mubeen and his associates were inspired by hardcore ISIS ideology to conspire and commit the act of terror after taking ‘bayath’ or allegiance to its self-proclaimed Caliph Abu-Al-Hasan Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi.

As per NIA investigations, the accused had intended to take revenge on the ‘Kafirs’ (non-believers of Islam) through this terror attack.

NIA has so far filed two chargesheets in the case before the NIA court, Poonamallee, Chennai. Six accused were chargesheeted on April 20, this year and five on June 2, 2023. The twelfth accused, Mohammed Idris, was arrested on August 2, 2023.