KOCHI: The Kochi Police on Monday filed a report before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court stating that the investigation against Kodungallur native, who was taken into custody on suspicion of a terrorist link, had been closed.
The court had sought a report from the police after Abdul Khader Raheem was taken into custody from the court hall on August 24 on the suspicion he had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants. An officer attached with the Ernakulam Central police station confirmed that no case had been registered against Raheem.
“After he was taken into custody, Raheem was released on Sunday evening and asked to appear before us on Monday as part of recording an official statement. After giving his statement, he left by afternoon. No evidence emerged during the interrogation to charge a case against him,” said an officer. Intelligence agencies and NIA officers along with Kerala Police team had interrogated Raheem.
It was suspected he had links with six LeT members who had sneaked into Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka. "He did not travel to Sri Lanka. Rather, he came to Kochi directly from Dubai last week. The call records retrieved from his mobile phone revealed that he had contacted a few persons in Tamil Nadu. We have verified that these contacts were not related to any anti-national activities," said an officer.
The police had picked up a woman, a native of Wayanad, from Raheem’s automobile garage at Aluva on Friday based on inputs by intelligence agencies. She too was released on Sunday. Raheem had arrived at the court to surrender before the magistrate as he feared a plot to implicate him and subject him to physical torture if he surrendered before the police.