Kovai car blast: Raids at 4 places in Chennai under NIA watchlist

CHENNAI: City Police on Tuesday conducted searches at houses of persons in the watchlist of National Investigation Agency (NIA), in the aftermath of the car blast in Coimbatore three weeks ago, in which a person was killed.

Police sources said that the searches were part of the statewide searches in which police are conducting searches at persons connected to Muslim outfits or in the radar of NIA.

On Tuesday, searches were conducted at the houses of four suspects. Teams headed by Deputy Commissioners of Police, I Eswaran and Albert John conducted searches at the houses and offices, from where cash and documents were seized.

In searches conducted at the residence of one person, Aarun Rashid (40), police seized cash worth Rs 4.9 lakh, Chinese currency worth Rs 1,600, Thailand currency worth Rs 4,820 and Myanmar currency worth Rs 50,000.

Police also seized cash worth Rs 10.3 lakh from his trading company at Salai Vinayagar Koil Street, Manadi.

Apart from the cash, police seized electronic gadgets, laptops, credit cards, debit cards from his residence. Apart from this, police also searched residences of Mohammed Mustafa in Esplanade police limits, Toufiq Ahamed (29) in Seven Wells police limits and Mohammed Thabriz in Kodungaiyur police limits.

The seized cash handed over to the Income Tax (I-T) department for scrutiny and the seized gadgets were sent for forensic analysis.

Four days ago, Chennai police had arrested 22-year-old, Nagoor Meeran of Tondiarpet who allegedly had notes on making explosives he learnt from YouTube and leaflets, sympathising with the ISIS ideology.

City police sources said that searches will continue in the coming days in the premises of those under the intelligence radar.