Arun Janardhanan
A car exploded and caught fire in the Ukkadam area of Coimbatore on the 23rd at 4 am. In this, Ukkadam G.M. Jamesha Mubeen (25), a youth from the city, died.
Three youths, including two brothers seen in CCTV footage with Jamesha Mubeen – voluntarily appeared before a senior investigating officer of the Tamil Nadu police hours after the blasts.
It was the mother of two brothers, Firoz Ismail (27) and Nawaz (26), who informed the officer that they were at Mubeen’s house the night before the incident. The third person was Mohammad Riaz (27), their neighbour.
These three are among the six people arrested in the case. Coimbatore Police Commissioner V Balakrishnan said while two other suspects, Mohammad Azharuddin and K Afsar Khan, are suspected of direct involvement in Mubeen’s conspiracy, the trio’s role has not been determined.
According to Balakrishnan, Mubeen was on his way to an as-yet-unknown destination and blew himself up when he spotted a police checkpost outside the temple.
According to CCTV footage, the trio came out of Mubeen’s house hours before the blast, carrying a large object suspected to be a cylinder.
But Maimuna Begum, mother of Firoz and Nawaz, said Mubeen sought help in shifting his house, so she sent her sons and Riyaz.
Speaking to The Indian Express at her home in GM Nagar, South Ukkadam, a congested area in Coimbatore with a significant Muslim population, Begum (50) said that when she heard about the blast, she contacted a senior investigating officer and informed him that the trio had been at Mubeen’s house the previous night.
An intelligence officer earlier with the NIA, who interrogated Mubeen in 2019, confirmed that Begum and her sons had approached him. However, he refused to share more details.
Begum’s husband died two years ago. He has five sons. Begum said Firoz had met Mubeen last year when she visited the bookstore where he worked. When we met Mubeen last month, he told us that he had left the bookstore and was now selling used clothes.
Begum said she last spoke to Mubeen when she met him near her house on October 22, the day before the blast.
He asked about Firoz and requested help to move his house. I called Firoz as Mubeen was told he had heart disease.
Mubeen wanted to come immediately. But I said we were going to meet someone, so I’ll send Firoz later. Begum said Firoz asked for his address and Mubeen said he would send his brother.
Back home that night, around 9.45, I asked Firoz to go to Mubeen’s house. His younger brother Nawaz was also at home so I told him to take him too. Besides, Begum said, I asked him to bring Riaz who lives nearby.
Afsar, Mubeen’s cousin, met the trio at GM Bakery and guided them to Mubeen’s house.
Later, Mubeen reportedly told Firoz Begum that he had already packed some things. The package contained gas cylinders and old clothes and the house was said to be where his relatives lived.
Begum said Firoz and Nawaz returned home at 11.35-11.40 pm. CCTV footage of four people, including Mubeen, outside his house was recorded around 11.25 pm.
Next morning, Begum said, Afsar came home around 9.30. He told me that he works as a car washer and came to see the Ford Icon we shared for sale on OLX. I called Firoz and he went to show me the car. But Afsar immediately turned back saying that he had actually come to look for Mubeen.
Begum said that the previous night, Afsar had shown Mubeen’s house and apparently left the place.
Around 10.30 am, a woman informed me about the car explosion. We watched videos on YouTube; Firoz said the car and the body resembled that of Mubeen. I immediately decided to call a police officer, said Begum.
Because of the 1998 Coimbatore blasts and communal incidents, Ukkadam is one of the areas with the highest police intelligence in the state, and Begum is familiar with senior police officers.
“I work in real estate so I interact with people from all walks of life,” he said.
Begum had earlier contacted a senior investigating officer in the NIA. I called him around 11.30 am. He told me to come near Holy Family School…
We parked our car on the road. He came and sat in our car and listened to us. He wanted to go to Mubeen’s house. We reached Mubeen’s house around 1 pm.
Firoz and others entered the building and I remained outside. He said the house was locked.
Begum said she told another officer working at the Police Recruiting School (PRS). By evening, the PRS officer called his sons. Everyone went to bed around 10.30 pm that night.
The next morning, he called his sons to the Ukkadam police station. In the evening, Firoz called me to inform me that a police team in plainclothes was coming to the house to search. They returned with nothing. They came back and took the video at 8.30 pm. They said they wanted something because they had to show the confiscated items.
They took my third son’s unused laptop and the younger one’s used Huawei tablet… After that, the NIA searched us on Thursday, he said.
I told Firoz to take his younger brother (Nawaz) too. If Firoz knows Mubeen’s plan, why does he take his younger brother?
If they know Mubeen’s plan, why didn’t they wear masks to escape from the CCTV? I regret asking Firoz to call Rias for help…
We help each other, that’s how we live here… Having lived in a rented house for almost two decades I know the difficulties when someone moves house, he said.
Firoz worked in Dubai for four years after his BCA studies. Nawaz was looking for a job in Coimbatore after completing his MBA.
At Riaz’s home in the same area, his parents said he did not know Mubeen. He completed his degree in computer science and was doing daily wage jobs like plumbing, his mother said.
When contacted, the state investigating officer confirmed that Begum and his sons had approached him.
When asked about the trio’s role, Azhar and Afsar were the only ones directly involved. The rest were part of “logistical support”.
But Firoz was linked to Rashid Ali, one of the six convicted in the 2016 Islamic State terror plot case in Kerala. There were reports that Feroze and others met Ali in a Kerala jail; Our counterparts in Kerala will share that information soon, the official said.
But Begum said she had evidence to prove that Feroze was with her in Kovilpalayam in connection with some land deals on the date he allegedly went to jail in Kerala.
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