The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is all set to take custody of the six terror suspects arrested in connection with the Coimbatore car blast case. The agency with its FIR registered on October 27, will begin a probe to find the sources of funds for Mubin to purchase and trace his handlers.
“It is not possible to buy huge quantities of explosives from e-commerce websites and other online portals. His father was not wealthy and his mother, too, did not live with him. He was not close to any of the businessmen in the local Jamath to get funds. His wife, too, was not wealthy. There are strong suspicions that there were external sources funding him for buying the explosives. The link can lead to anyone outside India,” a senior officer with the probe team told The Week. Sources also said that his bank accounts, funding sources of his relatives, and the other suspects in the case will be probed.
The agency will also be taking custody of the suspects—Mohammed Thalka, Mohammed Azarudeen, Mohammed Riyaz, Feroz Ismail, Mohammed Nawaz Ismail and Afsar Khan—who were arrested by the Coimbatore police in connection with the blast. Thalka, one of the relatives of 1998 car blast case convict S.A. Basha, had sold the car to Mubin, while Feroz Ismail and his brother Nawaz Ismail had foreign connections. Of the six arrested, sources said two had visited the Thrissur prison recently to meet Azarudeen and his associate who were arrested after the 2019 Easter bombings.
The investigation, sources said will trace the handlers of Mubin and if there was a larger terror plot. Also, the state intelligence report which names a total of 96 persons is taken as an important lead for investigation. The 89 others, apart from Mubin and the six suspects who have been arrested, are under constant surveillance. The officials have conducted search operations at least twice in the residences of the six arrested to find if there are any incriminating documents that could help the probe.
Talking to The Week, a senior official said that it was not just the online material that radicalised Mubin. “There are suspicions that his handlers were one of the major reasons for his continuous radicalisation,” he said.
All the CCTV footage and every piece of evidence from the spot and the houses of the six suspects have been collected by the investigating agencies.
