CHENNAI: A day after the National Investigation Agency was granted custody of 16 suspects arrested for alleged links with terrorist outfits, the agency on Saturday conducted searches at residences of 14 of them across the State. Searches were conducted at five locations in Ramanathapuram, two in Theni and one each in Chennai, Tirunelveli, Madurai, Thanjavur, Perambalur, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur.
“One laptop, seven mobile phones, five SIM cards, three memory cards, one hard disk, two pen drives, one internet dongle, nine discs and 50 documents were seized,” said an NIA statement. The men allegedly belonged to terrorist group Ansarulla, which, according to the agency, has links with Al Qaeda, ISIS and SIMI. In Chennai, house of suspect Toufiq Ahmed in Parry’s Corner was searched.
SIM card, passbook seized from house in Chennai
Raids were held at home of Mohamed Ibrahim (58) in Nagapattinam; Mohamed Sheik Maitheen (40) in Madurai; Meeran Ghani (33) in Theni; Gulam Nabi Asath (37) in Perambalur district; Rafi Ahamed (55) in Ramanathapuram district; Munthasir (39) in Ramanathapuram district; Umar Barook (48) in Thanjavur district; and Farook (26) in Ramanathapuram district.
In Chennai, a six-member team led by inspector Senthil Kumar reached Toufiq Ahmed’s house at Parry’s Corner around 6.30 am and the search lasted for five hours. A SIM card and a bank passbook among other documents were seized in the search.
“The seized materials will be submitted before the Special Court for NIA Cases, Chennai, and the digital devices will be subjected to cyber forensic examination,” said NIA officials.
No evidence was said to be found from the raids in Nagapattinam and Perambalur. In Thiruvarur, however, some SIM cards and CDs were seized. Azarudhen’s house in Thiruvarur was raided and an iPhone was seized. The house was locked and the village administration’s permission was reportedly taken before NIA broke into the premises.
Mohamed Ibrahim’s residence near Tharangambadi has been uninhabited for the past 15 years, according to sources. There are no reports of any documents being seized from here. The same was the case with Azad’s father’s residence in Labbaikudikadu village of Perambalur.