Bharat’s premier anti-terror probe agency, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), has charge-sheeted five more accused in the ISIS-inspired Coimbatore car bomb blast case of 2022, in which the suicide bomber Jamesha Mubeen, who perpetrated the explosion, was killed.
NIA Chargesheets 5 Accused in 2022 Coimbatore Car Bomb Blast Case pic.twitter.com/ZbnEILXncr
— NIA India (@NIA_India) April 17, 2025
The NIA took over the investigation from the Tamil Nadu government and registered a case related to a vehicle-borne IED explosion near the ancient Kottai Sangameswarar Temple at Easwaran Koil Street, Ukkadam, Coimbatore, on 23 October 2022 — a day before the Diwali festival. The terror attack was carried out by the deceased accused, Jamesha Mubeen, a self-styled ISIS operative and suicide bomber, as an act of revenge against ‘kafirs’ or non-believers of Islam.
Critics alleged that the Tamil Nadu DMK government and its then DGP, Sylendra Babu, initially attempted to portray the Coimbatore incident as an LPG cylinder explosion. However, after the NIA intervened, it became evident that it was a meticulously planned bomb blast. Some critics have further alleged that the DMK has been indirectly supporting terrorism and that Tamil Nadu is “becoming a Taliban-like nation”.
In a note dated 17 April, the NIA stated it had charge-sheeted five individuals in connection with the case. This marks the agency’s fourth supplementary charge sheet in this investigation. The accused — Sheikh Hidayathullah, Umar Faaruq, Pavas Rahman, Sharan Mariappan, and Aboo Hanifa — have been charged for their involvement in terror financing and other activities linked to the October 2022 terror attack that targeted the Hindu temple, Kottai Sangameswarar.
According to the agency’s statement, “With this, a total of 17 accused have been charge-sheeted in the case so far. The NIA has filed a fresh set of charges for terror financing against Sheikh Hidayathullah and the attack’s Amir, Umar Faaruq — both of whom had earlier been charge-sheeted for other offences in the case. The two accused orchestrated a fake COVID vaccine certificate scam during 2021–2022, using the funds earned from the scam to procure explosive materials and other resources for the car bomb attack. The scam was facilitated by the accused Pavas Rahman and Sharan, while Aboo Hanifa had provided funds for generating the fake certificates.”
The NIA further stated, “Jamesha Mubeen carried out the suicide bombing using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) in a modified Maruti car. He died in the blast and, therefore, charges against him have been abated. As per our investigation, Mubeen had pledged allegiance to ISIS’s self-proclaimed Caliph, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, and aimed to target non-believers as part of his extremist ideology.”
The probe also revealed that prior to the attack, the accused held meetings at the Viyyur High Security Prison and in the Sathyamangalam Reserve Forest to plan the conspiracy. Their objective, according to the NIA, was to avenge the imprisonment of their leader, Mohammed Azharuddin, who had been arrested by the NIA from Coimbatore in 2019 for promoting a violent Salafi-Jihadi ideology.
The NIA concluded, “The funds generated from the fraudulent operation were used to acquire bomb-making components and to support logistical preparations for the failed terror attack.”
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