Kovai blast suspects made fake COVID vax certificates to generate terror funds: NIA

CHENNAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday chargesheeted five additional individuals in connection with the 2022 Coimbatore car bomb blast, an ISIS-inspired attack targeting a temple that left the suicide bomber dead.

With this fourth supplementary chargesheet, the total number of accused in the case has risen to 17, NIA said in a press note.

The latest chargesheet is filed against Sheikh Hidayathullah, Umar Faaruq, Pavas Rahman, Sharan Mariappan and Aboo Hanifa for their roles in terror financing and facilitating the October 2022 attack on the Kottai Sangameshwarar temple in Coimbatore.

While Hidayathullah and Faaruq — previously charged for other offences — now face fresh terror financing allegations, Rahman, Mariappan, and Hanifa are accused of enabling a fake COVID-19 vaccine certificate scam (2021–2022) that funded the procurement of explosives and resources for the attack.

Investigations revealed that Faaruq, the alleged ‘Amir’ (leader) of the plot, and Hidayathullah masterminded the scam, generating illicit funds to finance the bombing.

Pavas Rahman and Sharan Mariappan allegedly facilitated the scam's operations, while Aboo Hanifa provided financial support for counterfeit certificates.

The attack was carried out by Jamesha Mubeen, a suicide bomber who detonated a vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) in a car near the temple.

Mubeen, who died in the blast, had pledged allegiance to ISIS's self-proclaimed caliph, Abu-Al-Hasan Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi, and sought to target ‘non-believers’ as part of his extremist agenda. Charges against him were abated posthumously.

According to the NIA, the accused had conspired in clandestine meetings held at Kerala's Viyyur High-Security Prison and Tamil Nadu's Sathyamangalam Reserve Forest to avenge the imprisonment of their leader, Mohammed Azharuddin, arrested by the NIA in 2019 for propagating violent Salafi-Jihadi ideology.

"The accused operated as a close-knit terrorist cell inspired by ISIS, driven by radical motives to destabilise national peace," the NIA stated in a note.