The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had forced Samsudeen, one of the suspects in Mysuru bomb blast case, to surrender before them by torturing his younger brother, Naseer, who was kept in illegal detention, his mother Mehaboob Nisha has claimed.
Talking to reporters here on Friday, Ms. Nisha, said unidentified persons, claiming to be police, knocked on their door at 3 a.m. on Sunday and picked up Naseer claiming that they needed to interrogate him in connection with a road accident. They dropped him back in the morning only to pick him up again
“Samsudeen had to surrender before the NIA fearing that the other family members would also be harassed,” she said.
The family members claimed that Samsudeen did not have acquaintance with other suspects . However, Samsudeen’s sister Jasmine said Abbas Ali, another suspect had accompanied the NIA team, when they came to pick up Naseer. Naseer has been hospitalised with injuries, she said.
Abbas Ali’s younger brother Ismail said the former was a school dropout and not very fluent in writing, even in Tamil. He ran the religious library along with his friends (not the suspects).
Another suspect, Dawood Suleiman, a software engineer in Chennai, used to visit Madurai only during weekends.
“He would go to the mosque for prayers. But otherwise, he would spend his time only in sleeping in house,” his father, Sait alias Mohammed Abdullah, said.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Madurai All Jamat and Islamic Movements raised several doubts over the arrest and the manner the national agency handled the case in Madurai.
Anti-Muslim attitude
Its coordinator, M.A. Ithiris, said NIA sleuths had an ‘anti-Muslim attitude’ and were implicating innocent Muslim youths in destructive activities reported across the country.
The NIA failed to give any concrete evidence to show that the arrested youths had links with any international terror organisation.
“Without any charge against them proved, the NIA had released the photographs of the suspects. However, they masked these youths when they were brought to the court only to create tension,” Mr. Ithiris said. If the NIA had been shadowing all these suspects for three months, how did Kareem Raja clear police verification and get his passport last month, he asked.
Advocate N. Shahjahan, wondered why an official from Special Investigation Division, against whom local police had made several charges, was allowed to accompany the NIA during the probe.
