CCTV camera footage purportedly shows deceased Jameesha Mubinwhom the NIA had interrogated in 2019, and three of the arrested IS suspects placing two LPG cylinders and three drums filled with “light explosives” in the car around 11.30pm on Saturday, Coimbatore police commissioner V Balakrishnan said.
One of these cylinders exploded when Mubin was driving past the temple around 4am Sunday, leading to a terror investigation despite preliminary findings suggesting the blast might have been unintended.
The arrested trio seen with the deceased the day before his death were identified as Mohammad Riyas, Firoz Ismail and Mohammad Nawaz Ismail, residents of GM Nagar near Coimbatore’s Ukkadam. A fourth suspect, Mohammed Thalkagave the car to Mubin and a relative of his, Mohammed Azarudhen. All of them are in their mid-20s.
A source privy to the investigation said the search of Mubin’s residence yielded, among other things, a piece of paper containing the names of five prominent Coimbatore locations — the police commissionerate, the collectorate, Victoria HallCoimbatore railway station and Race Course.
A scan of Mubin’s mobile phones revealed that he had scoured YouTube for DIY videos on how to make bombs. Investigators suspect the five places mentioned in the chit were his potential targets.
Mubin was known to be close to another man named Mohammed Azarudheen, arrested by the NIA in 2019 on charges of propagating messages from IS and Daish on social media to recruit youth for terror attacks across south India, mainly Kerala and TN. Azarudheen is at Viyyur central prison in Thrissur district.
“Many Muslim me from Coimbatore have visited Viyyur central prison and met Azarudheen and a few others over the past two years. Coimbatore police have requested the prison authorities to send details of these people,” an official said.
The NIA had searched Mubin’s residence in August 2019. A mechanical engineer, he is married and a father of two. Jamat leaders from Kottaimedu and its surrounding areas initially refused to bury Mubin’s body, relenting only after the police requested them to, the police said.
Ismail, one of the five arrested in the case, had been deported from the UAE in 2020 on India’s request. Thalka’s father, Nawab Khanis an accused in the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts that killed 58 and a member of the banned Al-Umma. Nawab visited his home on parole this March. The police are collecting details of those who met him at the time.
The arrested people have all been booked under sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the IPC and sections 16 and 18 of the UAPA, the police said.