Terror case convict held on charge of luxury car theft

Intelligence input on Al-Ummah revival being probed

The Kottayam West police on Friday arrested Muhammed Rafiq, a convict in the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blast case, in connection with the theft of several premium cars from Kerala.

A police team from Kottayam took the accused into custody from his hideout near Ukkadam. His arrest follows the statements given by Illyas and K.A. Nishad, who used to hire luxury cars using fake identity documents and sold them to Rafiq. During interrogation, the duo had told the police that they had supplied at least 11 cars and a two-wheeler to Rafiq.

How it worked

The police suspect Rafiq of taking possession of over a hundred premium vehicles from different parts of the State using the modus operandi. “The accused would take the vehicles to a garage at Coimbatore, tamper the engine and chassis numbers and dispatch them to other parts of the country,” said an official.

The police are also probing whether the thefts are linked to the intelligence inputs on the revival of the Al-Ummah network. Rafiq was earlier arrested in April 2018 following his controversial telephonic conversation with a truck driver claiming he was planning to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.