The Special Investigation Division (SID) personnel suspect that the some of the accused in the Advani pipe bomb and Bangalore bomb blasts cases might be involved in the murder of Vellaiyappan, Hindu Munnani state secretary that happened in Vellore last month.
The SID sleuths, who were here on Monday to interrogate the five persons arrested in Melapalayam on Saturday night, told Express that ‘Police’ Fakrudeen, Bilal Malick, the two key accused in the pipe bomb case and Panna Ismail, the prime accused in the Bangalore blasts case, had allegedly made frequent visits to Vellore prior to the murder of Vellaiyappn during the first week of July.
“When we showed the photographs of ‘Police’ Fakrudeen and Bilal Malick to the eye witnesses of the Vellore murder, they confirmed that the duo were present near the crime scene in Vellore,” the personnel claimed.
The intelligence wing officials also said that the (Closed Circuit Television)CCTV camera footages gathered from various places also showed that Panna Ismail was moving in Vellore nearly for a month.
Fakrudeen, along with his team members, who have been operating from underground, had been allegedly targeting Hindu outfit leaders for their hate speech against the Islam.
“Mohammed Hanifa alias Tenkasi Hanifa, one of the accused in Advani pipe bomb case, who was arrested recently, was also found carrying a picture of Bhaskaran, the district secretary of the Dindigul unit of the RSS,” said police sources.
Police said that Fakrudeen and Bilal Malick had visited Madurai a couple of days back and had threatened a youth involved in the Advani pipe bomb case, not to reveal any information about them to the police. The youth was released on bail recently.
This apart, the police also suspect the involvement of Fakrudeen in the murder of Suresh, a milk shop owner in Thideer Nagar here on June 26. Suresh, a history-sheeter, had affair with a Muslim woman. He forced her for physical relationship even after the woman’s marriage. Though Suresh was not a member of any Hindu outfit, he was actively involved in religious activities, police said, adding that hence they suspected Police Fakrudeen and his associates in the murder of Suresh.