Minister for Industries Thangam Thennarasu on Friday denied that there was any delay in handing over the Coimbatore blast case to the National Investigation Agency.
Earlier in the day, at a function in Coimbatore, Governor R.N. Ravi expressed disappointment that the case was handed over to the NIA four days after the incident.
In an apparent reply to the Governor’s remarks, Mr. Thennarasu told reporters here that the Tamil Nadu police, which nabbed all the suspects immediately after the blast, had collected all the evidence from the scene of crime and the houses of the suspects.
As the NIA and the Intelligence Bureau too joined the investigation, the police had shared the information and the evidence they had collected.
When the State government found it to be an act of terrorism during the course of the investigation, the case was handed over to the NIA, which had lauded the investigation done by the police till then.
“Against this backdrop, the Governor has stated that the Tamil Nadu government had delayed the handing over of the case to the NIA. Whenever an untoward incident occurs in a State, the State police would be the first investigator. If an act of terrorism is established, the case would then be transferred to the NIA.
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In this line, the Tamil Nadu government has also handed over the investigation to the NIA with all evidence collected so far,” said Mr. Thennarsu, who recalled that the bomb blasts that had happened in a few parts of the country in the past were handed over to the NIA even after 10 days.
