Kerala police seize car with Osama bin Ladan sticker

At a time when Kerala is on a high alert after the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka and the arrest of a suspected Islamic State sympathiser from the state, police on Thursday taken into custody a car with a sticker of slain al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Ladan from Kollam city.

The owner of the car was identified as Muhammad Haneef, 22, a final-year BCom student of MSN College in Chavara.

The Honda Accord, which was registered in West Bengal, was seized by Eravipuram police after a passer-by alerted the cops about the controversial sticker on its boot.

When the car was intercepted, the driver, identified as Hareesh, told the police that he had  hired the car from Haneef for a marriage function. Later summoned by police, Haneef revealed that he bought the car a year ago from a friend in Bengaluru for Rs 4.5 lakh and that he pasted the terrorist's sticker for “fun”.

Eravipuram Circle Inspector P. Anil Kumar said the the ownership details of the vehicle are being verified.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested a 29-year-old man on Monday on charges of conspiring to carry out terror attacks in the state. Riyas Aboobacker alias Abu Dujana told the probe agency that he had been following speeches of Hashim, a radical cleric who was the mastermind of the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka.