NIA sleuths search houses of seven jailed extremists in Chennai, Kovai

Sleuths of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted simultaneous searches in the houses of seven Muslim extremists from Chennai and Coimbatore arrested recently for conspiring to murder Hindu outfit leaders in Coimbatore.

The Coimbatore city police foiled attempts by Jafar Safiq Ali, Shalavudin, Samsudeen and Ismayil, all hailing from different areas in Chennai and Ashik, Faizal and Shahul Hameed from Coimbatore for hatching a conspiracy to kill various Hindu outfit leaders.

They all were arrested on September 2 and booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) besides other relevant sections for plotting to kill Hindu Munnani leader Arjun Sampath and Sakthi Sena president Anbu Mari.

Inquiries revealed that Ismayil, the mastermind behind the murder conspiracy was a member of the banned terrorist organisation. They had no previous enmity with the Hindu leaders but decided to kill inspired by the IS module. They all had befriended each other through Facebook and WhatsApp, while sharing information inspired on similar ideology.

As a larger network of terror links was suspected, the NIA took up the investigation into the case. A week ago, Arjun Sampath appeared before the NIA sleuths and submitted evidence for death threats; he received calls from various anonymous numbers.

Meanwhile, different teams of NIA officials fanned out to Chennai and Coimbatore holding raids in the houses of seven men. Sources said that a 21 cm long dagger, Rs 2.16 lakh of unaccounted money and three cell phones were seized from the house of Faizal at GM Nagar in Ukkadam.

Similarly, incriminating documents and religious materials were seized from the house of other men. A large number of cops were deployed in front of the houses, where searches were conducted to prevent any untoward incidents.

NIA operation targets six spots in city
Sleuths from National Investigation Agency conduct searches at totally at six places in Chennai, Tindivanam and Coimbatore in a case connected to a case of conspiracy to eliminate leader of certain Hindu outfits. In Chennai, the raids were conducted at, Pallavaram, Otteri and M K B Nagar.

The NIA team obtained a search warrant from the NIA special court in Poonamallee and conducted surprise checks. NIA officials along with the local police went to the residence of S Shamsudeen Sirajuddin, 20, in Parasuraman Street in Nehru Nagar Pallavaram and conducted searches.

Searches were also conducted in the house of Jaffar Sadiq Ali,  29, Pudhu Nagar in MKB Nagar and the residence of Sallavudin, 24 on Durgah Cross street in Otteri. At Tindivanam the investigators search the house of S Ismail.