Tamil Nadu: Under Pressure, Stalin Recommends NIA Probe In Coimbatore Car Blast Case

The Tamil Nadu government has recommended to transfer the Coimbatore cylinder blast case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister MK Stalin and attended by the top state officials like Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu, Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu, Home Secretary K Phanindra Reddy and the ADGP(Intelligence) Davidson Devasirvatham.

The reason cited by the government for recommending transfer was the ‘national and international ramifications of the case.’

Apart from recommending the transfer of the case to the NIA, the Tamil Nadu government also announced a slew of measures to improve the security situation of the state. Following are some of the measures announced-

• constitution of a special force to prevent such incidents

• surveillance cameras in big cities like Chennai and Coimbatore and in densely populated areas

• appointment of more officers to the intelligence department

• providing security to people who give inputs about people who indulge in anti-social activities

• three new police stations to be set up in Karumbu Kadai, Koundampalayam, and Sundarapuram areas of Coimbatore for greater surveillance

The decision comes after mounting pressure from the opposition, especially by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai who called out the Dravida Munnetra Kazahagam (DMK) government’s delay in accepting it as a terror attack and termed the incident as a major failure of the Intelligence Department of the state.

The BJP state unit had already written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting him for a NIA probe.

Till the time of the recommendation by the Tamil Nadu government, the Coimbatore City Police had recovered around 75 kg of explosives from the house of the deceased Jameesha Mubeen and invoked the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against the five people arrested in the case.

Also Read: Same War, Same Aggressor, Same City: Why Little Seems To Have Changed In Tamil Nadu Between 'Coimbatore 1998' And '2022'