A Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of the CB-CID police on Thursday arrested in Kerala an accused absconding for over 16 years in the February 14, 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts that left 58 persons dead and over 250 injured.
S. Kunju Mohammed alias Kunhi Mohammed (58) was nabbed at Panangangara near Malappuram in Kerala. The blasts were timed to the visit of then president of the Bharatiya Janata Party L.K. Advani to the city to address a meeting during the 1998 Lok Sabha elections.
The police said Kunju Mohammed was wanted for his role in transporting the explosives and for harbouring those involved in the blasts.
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He was a welder and also did related jobs for a living. Since the blasts, he had been moving across the country over these years and had come to his home town recently, a Special Investigation Division (SID) official said.
As of now Kunju Mohammed was charged under Section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He was produced before Judicial Magistrate-V in the Coimbatore Court Senthil Kumar, who remanded him in judicial custody for 15 days. He was lodged in the Coimbatore Central Prison.
The SID said it would soon move the court for police custody to inquire whether he had a role in any other blasts across the country, including the recent explosions in Bangalore.
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Of the total 181 accused in the case, 178 had been arrested so far. Kunju Mohammed was the latest to be arrested, much after the verdict in the case had been pronounced.
While eight of those arrested in the case had died during various stages of the trial, a search was on for three others, including “Tailor” Raja and Mujibur Rehman, a senior SID official said.