CHENNAI: A Sri Lankan national was arrested at Poonamallee on Wednesday after a probe by the National Investigation Agency found that he was staying there without even a passport for over a year.
On Tuesday, a special team from the Intelligence Bureau and NIA conducted raids at a house located on the eleventh floor in an apartment complex at Parivakkam junction on Chennai-Bengaluru National Highway near Poonamallee. The team found three men along three woman and a child staying in the house. The team detained all the three men for inquiry.
“We also found the men were friends with Hashim (the main suspect in Sri Lanka Easter day blasts) on Facebook,” added the source. After they found that one of the men did not have a passport, they alerted Poonamallee police who arrested the man, Roshan, and are conducting further inquiries.
On Sunday, NIA arrested Riyas Aboobacker, a native of Kambrathachalla in Muthalamada, Palakkad, after questioning him and searching his house for four hours the previous day. Riyas, according to the agency, used to follow the videos and speeches of Zahran Hashim, the mastermind of Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka.
Sources said the raid at Poonamallee was conducted based on information gathered from Kerala.
Except Roshan’s illegal stay, police and NIA did not comment on the identities of two others or whether they are involved in any illegal act.