The Tamil Nadu police on Monday, October 24, intensified their investigation into the car explosion incident in Coimbatore, even as CCTV footage showed a group of men carrying a gunny bag from the house of Jamesha Mubin, who was killed in the blast. Director General of Police (DGP) C Sylendra Babu had on Sunday said that "low-intensity" explosive materials including potassium nitrate — used in making country bombs — were recovered from the house of Mubin. CCTV footage near the house showed five people purportedly taking out a gunny bag from Mubin's house around 11.25 pm on Saturday, police said.
The cylinder explosion in the car happened near Kottai Eswaran Temple in the busy and communally sensitive Ukkadam area around 4 am on Sunday. While one of the five persons seen in the CCTV footage could be Mubin, an investigation is on to identify the remaining members, police added. Police are also questioning seven people in connection with Mubin, based on their contact with him. An auto-rickshaw driver from Coonoor in the nearby Nilgiris district was brought here for interrogation, tracing his mobile phone signal at the place of the explosion. A resident of Ottupattarai in Coonoor, he was residing there for the last four months, police said.
Mubin was charred to death when a gas cylinder in the car in which he was travelling exploded on Sunday. Nails, marbles and some other items were found in the vehicle, the DGP had earlier said. Six special teams were formed to investigate the case. Following the blast, all the shops in the vicinity of Kottai Easwaran Temple were closed, and a large number of police personnel were deployed in the area.
Meanwhile, AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) interim general secretary and Tamil Nadu Leader of Opposition K Palaniswami called for an independent probe into the matter, to ascertain if the incident was an accident or a conspiracy. Training his guns against Chief Minister M K Stalin, who holds the Home portfolio, Palaniswami asked what the former had to say about the explosion. The police should probe the matter without any political pressure to ascertain if it was an accident or a conspiracy, he demanded.