Sadam Hussain and Faizal Rahman aka ‘Auto’ Faizal, who were booked by Coimbatore city police on Monday for an alleged attempt to disturb communal harmony, were earlier involved in two sensational cases, the police said. Sadam Hussain was one of the six accused arrested in connection with the murder of rationalist H. Farook, a member of Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam. He was hacked to death near Ukkadam on March 16, 2017.
The police said Hussain, who was granted bail, was under surveillance. The team which investigated Farook’s murder found that Hussain and a few others had allegedly called on Kichan Buhari, former Al-Umma member, before committing the crime. Buhari had served prison term in connection with 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts and later arrested for alleged involvement in Malleswaram blast in 2013, in Bengaluru prison. Farook was murdered allegedly for his rationalistic stand.
The police said Faizal was arrested in September 2018 with six others for hatching a conspiracy to murder Hindu Makkal Katchi leader Arjun Sampath and Sakthi Sena leader Anbu Mari. The case registered by the Variety Hall police was later re-registered by the Delhi unit of the National Investigation Agency in October 2018.
Faizal and the other accused were booked under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The NIA’s summary of allegations say, “A group of seven persons from different parts of Tamil Nadu formed a terrorist gang with allegiance to the proscribed terrorist organization ISIS and had entered into a criminal conspiracy to kill some Hindu leaders of Coimbatore, thereby threatening the communal harmony besides the security and sovereignty of India.” This is also the first case registered by the NIA for suspected IS activities in Coimbatore.
Another accused in Farook’s murder, Akram Sindhaa, is one of the six members of the Coimbatore-based IS module which the NIA busted on June 12 this year and registered a case against them. The Kochi unit of the NIA is currently investigating the module.
