New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Thursday afternoon a 33-year-old man, accused in the 2006 Kozhikode twin blasts cases, from the IGI Airport here after he landed from Saudi Arabia, the agency said.
It said Mohammed Ashar, resident of Thalassery in Kannur district of Kerala, had been absconding and was had been charge-sheeted by the NIA in 2010.
“The cases pertain to the twin improvised explosive device blasts that occurred at the KSRTC and mofussil bus stands in Kozhikode (Calicut) city March 3, 2006 causing injuries to two persons besides damage to property,” an NIA spokesperson said.
He added that NIA had taken over the investigation of the cases in December 2009 from the state police and had filed a chargesheet against eight accused, including Ashar, in 2010 under sections of the ‘Unlawful Activities Prevention Act’, ‘IPC’ and ‘Explosive Substances Act’.
Investigation found that Ashar and the other absconding accused PP Yusuf were ‘party’ to the criminal conspiracy hatched by the prime accused T Naseer, Safas and others to carry out IED blasts in Kozhikode city in protest over the denial of bail to some Muslim charged accused in the 2003 Marad communal riots case.
Ashar will be produced before a special court in Delhi to obtain transit remand to take him to Kochi and produce him before the jurisdictional special court at Ernakulam in Kerala, the agency informed.
PTI