The case pertains to an explosion that took place on October 23 in front of a temple at Eswaran Kovil Street in Ukkadam near Coimbatore from a vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (V-IED) driven by Jamesha Mubeen, who was killed in the blast.

A statement issued by the NIA said Mubeen was inspired by ISIS ideology to carry out the attack and that he had taken ‘bayath’ or oath of allegiance to its self-proclaimed Caliph Abu-al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. The case, which was initially probed by the state police, was taken up by NIA on October 27, 2022.

While the charges against Mubeen were abated as he was killed, the agency charged his alleged associates Mohammed Asarutheen, Mohammed Thalha, Firos, Mohammed Riyas, Navas and Afsar Khan under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), IPC and the Explosives Substances Act.

According to the NIA, Mubeen was aided and assisted by Mohammed Asarutheen, Mohammed Thalha, Firos, Mohammed Riyas, Navas and Afsar Khan in arranging logistics. “Thalha had sourced the Maruti 800 blue car bearing registration number TN-01-F-6163, which was used in the explosion. Firos, Riyas and Navas had loaded the explosives, gas cylinders, etc., in the car. Asarutheen and Afsar, both cousins of Mubeen, had procured, weighed, mixed, and packed the chemical constituents used to manufacture the VBIED used in the attack,” the NIA statement said.

The NIA statement said a pen drive recovered from Mohammed Asarutheen contained video recordings of Jamesha Mubeen, where he had identified himself as a member of Daulat-e-Islamia (or Islamic State). “He had spoken extensively on his intention to commit a suicide terror attack against the ‘kafirs’ (non-believers) and to become a martyr. Mubeen was inspired by the bayans (sermons) of Zahran Hashim, a radical Islamic cleric from Sri Lanka, who masterminded the Easter serial suicide bomb attacks in 2019, killing around 260 people. Mubeen wanted to orchestrate a similar kind of attack against the ‘kafirs’ in India,” the NIA statement said.

The NIA said handwritten notes were recovered from Mubeen’s residence wherein criticism of the democratic system, which is not in tandem with Islamic laws, has been mentioned. There is also a mention of ‘targets’, including government office buildings, district court, public gathering places like parks, railway stations, and a few local temples, the agency said.

The Islamic State of Khorasan Province’s online magazine, ‘Voice of Khorasan,’ corroborated this in an article titled ‘A Message to the Inhabitants in the Land Occupied by Cow and Mice Worshipping Filths,’ where ISKP took responsibility for the attack held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, the NIA statement said.

“The article goes on to state that the attack was revenge to uphold the honour of their religion and to establish Allah’s deen and his law upon his land and to terrorise the ‘Kufr’ and its followers, with the threat that it was just the beginning,” the NIA said.