The Tamil Nadu Police on Tuesday arrested Mohammed Rafiq, a 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts convict, on the basis of a recorded telephonic conversation, in which he is purportedly heard claiming that he planned to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The police have booked Rafiq under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to promoting enmity among different groups on grounds of religion and criminal intimidation, The Times of India reported. He has been remanded in judicial custody till May 7.
Fifty-eight people were killed in serial bomb blasts in Coimbatore in February 1998. Rafiq was one of several others found guilty in connection with the blasts. He was released from prison in 2007 after he served his term.
Since his release, he has been involved in several cases and has been under police surveillance, PTI reported. The eight-minute recorded telephonic conversation was purportedly between Rafiq and a truck contractor named Prakash.
“The conversation was mainly related to finances about vehicles,” PTI cited a police officer as saying. “But suddenly the blast convict was heard saying ‘we have decided to eliminate [Prime Minister] Modi, as we were the ones who had planted bombs when [Bharatiya Janata Party leader] LK Advani visited the city [Coimbatore] in 1998’,” the police said.
However, Rafiq has confessed to the police that there was no such conspiracy. “Rafiq told us during investigation that he was only threatening Prakash and there was no conspiracy to kill the PM,” a police officer from the Special Intelligence Unit told The Times of India.
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