Chennai: Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi, who had served in the Intelligence Bureau as an IPS officer, on Friday questioned the delay in handing over the probe into Sunday’s Coimbatore car blast to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Chief Minister M K Stalin, on Wednesday, decided to recommend handing over the probe in the case to the NIA.
Questioning the four-day delay, Ravi, who was in Coimbatore to participate in an event at a naturopathy institute, said, “The incident that happened a few days back in the district, was an attempt to unleash a major terror attack...The quantity of explosive material that was found later and IED-making chemicals and ingredients were enough to suggest that they had planned a series of attacks. The question is when the Tamil Nadu police got the suspects within hours, why did it take more than four days to bring in the NIA.”
Contending that Coimbatore is a hatching ground for terrorists “for a very long time,” he claimed they have been trained and taken to Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
“Those involved in the car explosion incident were on our radar (of NIA) in the past (2019). Where did we miss? Did we lose our monitoring system,” he asked.
The NIA had formally registered a FIR in the case on Thursday and taken over the probe from the Tamil Nadu police.
Meanwhile, police sources said interrogation of the six suspects arrested in the case so far, has led to some startling revelations. The sources claimed that the arrested accused have told them that Jameesha Mubin, who drove the ill-fated car that exploded on Sunday, could have been killed before executing his plot. “Mubin, initially considered a victim, has turned out to be the mastermind of this terror plot. His associates have said he had undertaken a recce of some places and could have died before executing it,” a senior police officer, who was part of the initial investigation, claimed.
According to another officer, Mubin was believed to be an associate of Mohammed Azharuddin, who was a follower of Zahran Hashim, the mastermind before Sri Lanka’s blood Easter Sunday attacks.
“Investigators will also question Mubin’s family members including his wife. Since the wife is hearing and speech impaired, a sign language interpreter would be engaged during the questioning process,” the officer added.
