Bid to link me with SL blasts: NIA-grilled man

Speaking to newspersons, Mohammed Ashik (26), who was part of a seven-member gang arrested for conspiring to kill Hindu Munnani leader Arjun Sampath and Sakthi Sena president Anbu Mari, claimed that he had no contacts with terrorists.

“I do not know of others, but I came to know of IS terrorists only after I was arrested by the NIA. The investigating agency also did not seize any incriminating videos from our mobile phones as was claimed. Now, the NIA is fabricating a story that we were part of the module involved in the Sri Lankan terror attacks,” he said.

The Coimbatore city police in September last year arrested seven persons, namely Jafar Safiq Ali, Shalavudin, Samsudeen, Ismayil, Mohammed Ashik, Faizal and Shahul Hameed for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to kill various Hindu outfit leaders.

They were all booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Inquiries revealed that Ismayil, the mastermind behind the murder conspiracy, was a member of a banned terrorist organisation. They had no previous enmity with the Hindu leaders but decided to kill the latter after being inspired by the IS module. They all had befriended each other through Facebook and WhatsApp sharing information based on similar ideology.