The motorcycle used and the manner in which the Malleswaram blast was carried out led the police to arrest the three accused. Police sources said the TVS Suzuki Max 100 bike, to which the explosive was strapped, was traced to a software engineer in Chennai, who had sold it to a mechanic.
“The mechanic had sold the bike to a two-wheeler broker at Vellore and he had, in turn, sold the bike. Though he did not have any details of the buyer, he remembered his name as Basheer. When police started gathering information about Basheer, his portrait matched that of an Al Umma activist, giving us a crucial lead to the probe,” a source said.
“When we verified Basheer’s mobile phone call details, we found that he had made frequent calls to another accused Peer in Bangalore and Bhuhari, who was convicted in the Coimbatore serial blast case. This led us to strongly suspect the trio’s role in the blast,” the source added.
“The manner in which the blast was executed was very similar to that of the pipe bomb plot targeting BJP leader L K Advani during his ‘Jan Chetna’ rath yatra at Tirumangalam in Madurai on October 28, 2011. Even that plot was planned by aides of slain Al Umma leader Imam Ali,” the source said.
Investigations have revealed that the accused had actually targeted BJP leaders. “They had thought that BJP leaders would gather in large numbers at the party office as it was the last day to file nominations for the elections. They had planned to park the bike very close to the party office. As no vehicles were parked there, the accused changed their plan as the bike would grab police attention if it is parked alone,” the source said.
Police are also probing whether the motive behind the attack was to avenge the arrest of PDP chief Abdul Nasser Madani, who is said to be Al Umma sympathiser and is facing trial in the 2008 serial blasts case.
2 Have No Criminal Background
Mohideen and Basheer neither have known links with banned outfits nor criminal history. Police sources said that Basheer was a small-time real estate agent and Peer Mohiddeen a tea powder merchant on Tannery Road. Police also picked up two others, Saibu Sulaiman and Shahul, from Melappalayam, but let them off as they were found innocent.
According to a senior police officer, S Kitchen Buhari (43), a former Al Umma member, recently met PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madani at a wedding in Bangalore. “Buhari and the main suspect in Bangalore had a 30-minute conversation on the phone,” the source claimed. The accused were produced before a magistrate on Tuesday night.