Coimbatore explosion case: One more person held

Coimbatore: Police on Thursday arrested one more person in connection with the car explosion case here, taking the total number to six.

The arrested man-Afsar Khan-, a local resident, had reportedly played a major role in sourcing explosive materials seized from the house of Jamesha Mubin, the victim in the car explosion here on October 23, on the eve of Deepavali.

The 28-year-old Khan is a relative of Mubin and had helped purchase a large quantity of explosive materials from e-commerce platforms, police said.

Khan fell into the police dragnet after he was questioned on suspicion for more than five hours and a search of his house led to the seizure of a laptop on Wednesday, which was sent to cyber analysis. This resulted in his arrest on Thursday morning, police said.

Police had earlier arrested five persons in connection with the explosion under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, even as senior officials of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) are camping here.

Meanwhile, police began interrogation of these five accused– Muhammad Thalha, Muhammad Azharuddin, Muhammad Riyas, Muhammed Nawaz, and Firoz Ismail, as the 5th Judicial Magistrate here granted three days custody.

On 23 October, 75 kg explosives were seized from the residence of 29-year-old Mubeen who was killed after a gas cylinder exploded. The explosion happened while he was moving past a temple on a car in Tamil Nadu’s western textile city and he had allegedly tried to evade a police check post.