The National Investigation Agency may soon take over investigation into the low intensity blasts at the Malappuram first class magistrate court and the Kollam collectorate.
The move follows the arrest of suspected operatives of an underground group called Base Movement, allegedly owing allegiance to al-Qaeda, from Tamil Nadu.
Though the investigation so far has not revealed direct involvement of any Keralite in these cases, the agency suspects the group of carrying out the blasts in Kollam and Malappuram with local support.
Preliminary investigation pointed to the arrested persons procuring gun powder from Sivakasi for carrying out the blasts at Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, Mysuru in Karnataka, and Kollam and Malappuram in Kerala.
Among these cases, only the Mysuru blast is being probed by the NIA and the rest by the respective State police unit.
The NIA, however, will now be probing the activities of the Base Movement in Kerala as part of a case registered in connection with the bomb blast at the Mysuru court complex.
Investigators suspect that the group was planning two more blasts, one each in Kerala and Telangana, in the next two months. It, however, purposefully avoided Tamil Nadu not to arouse suspicion of the investigators.
The NIA Kochi unit received a tip-off about a group sourcing gunpowder from firecracker units at Sivakasi during investigation into the operation of an Islamic State module in southern India. Following this, it alerted the police units in Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, the sleuths are looking whether the group received funds from international sources. It is also suspected that the blasts carried out using pressure cooker required considerable expertise.
The group, of which seven persons have been identified so far, used no shrapnel along with gunpowder so as to avoid any causality, the officials said.
