One of the three persons arrested on Monday night by the Karnataka Police in connection with the Bangalore blasts had served time in jail for his role in the 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blast case.
A former member of the banned Al Umma, S Kitchan Buhari (43) was nabbed at Melapalayam Railway station in Tirunelveli. He had been sentenced to 10 years in jail in the Coimbatore blast case.
All three hailed from Melapalayam, though Buhari had relocated to Coimbatore. The other two are Peer Mohideen (39) and Basheer (30). Both were holed up in Chennai’s Flower Bazaar, from where they were arrested and handed over to the Karnataka Police.
Buhari was about to take a train to Coimbatore when the Anti Terrorism Wing and Tamil Nadu police nabbed him in a joint operation. He was brought to Madurai for questioning and was later handed over to the Karnataka special team.
Police sources in Bangalore said Basheer was a small-time real estate agent and Peer Mohideen a tea merchant on Tannery Road. “Four other suspects are being interrogated by Bangalore and Chennai police teams in Chennai. The link was established through Basheer’s mobile phone as a text message was sent from it to Mohideen. The message was traced to Tamil Nadu and it was sent from Chennai a day before the blast,” a source said.
Bangalore Police Commissioner Raghavendra H Auradkar said Mohideen and Basheer have been brought to the city for interrogation.
They later were produced before a magistrate who remanded them in police custody.
According to a police officer in Madurai, Buhari recently met PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madani, allegedly involved in the 2008 Bangalore blasts case, at a wedding in the city.
