NIA raid at 40 places in TN

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out search operations at 60 locations across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu, the operations are carried out at 40 locations including 15 areas in Coimbatore and five places in Chennai.

The raids were conducted in connection with the car cylinder blast that occurred in front of the Sangameswarar temple at Kottaimedu the city in October last year.

In association with the city police, several teams of the NIA have been searching buildings at multiple areas including Ukkadam, Pullukadu, Vasantha Nagar, Brindavan Nagar and Kuniyamuthu in the city and it is based on the confessions of the accused during custodial interrogations. NIA has so far arrested 11 people in the case.

A 16-membered team has been raiding the houses of all those who are either arrested in connection with the case or suspected to be in connection with banned outfits, since 6 in the morning. Similarly, officials have searched the house of one Syed Rahuman who was suspected to have links with banned organizations. During the operation, officials had seized several important documents.

Similarly, a five-member team of the NIA is searching the house of an IT employee - Sheikh Dawood - at New Raja Colony in Trichy. A team has been checking the house of one Mohammed Faisal, who is said to be working as a driver in a foreign country, at Chinnamelatheru in Vadakarai village in Mayiladuthurai district. The sleuths are also conducting search operations at the houses of those who were suspected to be the sympathisers of banned Islamic outfits in Southern parts of the state including Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Tenkasi districts.

NIA raid 

The sleuths are searching the houses of one Anwardeen in Karikkathoppu and Kamaludeen in Ervadi in Tirunelveli, Ayeesha in Tenkasi district and Haris Khan near Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district.

On October 23, a day before Diwali, a car that was parked in front of the temple at Kottaimedu exploded and the driver of the vehicle was killed in the explosion. That evening, police identified the deceased as Jameesha Mubin and the source of the explosion to be the blast of one the two LPG cylinders kept inside the vehicle. Police arrested six people - Muhammad Azharudheen, 23, Afsar Khan, 28, Muhammad Thalha, 25, Muhammad Riyas, 27, Firoz Ismail, 27, and Muhammad Nawaz Ismail, 25 before the case was transferred to NIA.

The investigation revealed that the accused had been conspiring the terror attack for several months and they had conducted multiple meetings within the limits of Sathyamangalam forest in Erode. The number of arrested persons was increased to 11. Based on the details that emerged during the interrogation, the agency conducted search operations a few months earlier.