With the arrest of ‘Police’ Fakruddin and Bilal Malik, the nearly two-year-long hunt for the two extremists wanted in several cases in Madurai district has come to an end.
The cases include the one pertaining to planting of a powerful pipe-bomb on the proposed route of the convoy of the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, L.K. Advani, near Tirumangalam in October 2011.
Madurai police said that though they were wanted in many other cases, it was the video clipping of the murder of milkman B. Suresh Kumar on the night of June 28 and the subsequent arrest of two city youths – Abdullah and Toufiq – that gave the police a concrete lead in their pursuit.
ADVERTISEMENT
The two youngsters confessed that they had been invited for some other “operation” by Fakruddin and Malik elsewhere in the State. This helped the police get a clearer picture of the murders of Hindu Munnani leader S. Vellaiyappan and BJP leader V. Ramesh.
Malik was absconding around a year before the October 2011 incident involving Mr. Advani’s convoy. Fakruddin went underground after the incident.
(An alert passer-by informed the police about the six-feet-long pipe bomb which was removed hours before the convoy was scheduled to cross the bridge.)
ADVERTISEMENT
Fakruddin of Nelpettai here was sentenced to a seven-year imprisonment term for his involvement in helping an Al-Umma activist, Imam Ali, escape from the police custody at Tirumangalam in March 2002. The police said that he is an accused in a murder case in Tiruchi and an assault case in Salem besides some other cases. He had been detained under the National Security Act and Goondas Act in the past, the police added.
Malik is an accused in the murder of Hindu Munnani leader, A.R. Kalidassan and Poosari Gangadaran, in 2005.