Daijiworld Media Network - Chennai
Chennai, Jul 10: In a major breakthrough in the decades-old Coimbatore serial bomb blasts case, Tamil Nadu Police have arrested ‘Tailor’ Raja, a key accused who had been on the run for 27 years. Raja, who was living under multiple aliases, was apprehended in Vijayapura district of Karnataka on Wednesday by a joint operation carried out by the Anti-Terrorism Squad and Coimbatore City Police.
The 50-year-old fugitive, believed to be Shahjahan Abdul Majid Makandar and also known as Sadiq, ‘Valarntha’ Raja, and Shahjahan Shaik, was brought to Coimbatore under tight security and produced before the Fifth Judicial Magistrate Court on Thursday. He has been remanded in judicial custody until July 24.
Raja is a long-time operative of the banned terror outfit Al Ummah and is accused of playing a significant role in the February 14, 1998 serial bomb blasts that killed 58 people and injured more than 250 in Coimbatore. The coordinated explosions, one of the deadliest terror attacks in Tamil Nadu’s history, were allegedly part of a plot to assassinate senior BJP leader L.K. Advani ahead of an election rally.
According to police, Raja was originally from Bilal Estate in South Ukkadam, Coimbatore, and had gone underground as early as 1996. In addition to his role in the 1998 bombings, he is suspected to have been involved in several other terror-related incidents across the state. These include the 1996 Molotov cocktail attack that killed jail warder Boopalan in Coimbatore, the murder of a woman named Sayeetha in Nagore the same year, and the 1997 killing of jailor Jayaprakash in Madurai.
Raja’s arrest follows the recent apprehension of two other absconding accused in related cases, Abubacker Siddique and Mohamed Ali alias Yunus, who were tracked down in Andhra Pradesh’s Annamayya district. Both were believed to be central figures in the Al Ummah network and had evaded capture for years.
A senior police officer described Raja’s arrest as a “significant step forward in delivering justice” to the victims of terror.
Officials are now hopeful that his interrogation could help uncover long-dormant terror networks and sleeper cells linked to Al Ummah that once operated in Tamil Nadu.