Conspiracy to 'eliminate' PM Modi: Coimbatore blast convict Mohammed Rafiq remanded to judicial custody for 15 days

Mohammed Rafiq, who was a convict in 1998 Coimbatore blast case, has been remanded to 15 days judicial custody. He was arrested on Monday from Coimbatore on the charges of conspiring to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a telephonic conversation with a businessman named Prakash.

The Coimbatore Police arrested Mohammed Rafiq after a recorded telephonic conversation went viral on social media in which he is purportedly heard saying he is planning to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, police said.

They said the eight-minute long conversation, which is being circulated on social media, was between a man, who has completed a jail term in the blast case and lives in Kuniyamuthur in the city, and a transport contractor.

"The conversation was mainly related to finances about vehicles. 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 (former deputy Prime Minister L K) Advani visited the city in 1998," the police said on Monday.

The city was rocked by a series of bomb blasts in February 1998 in which 58 people were killed and property worth crores was destroyed. "I have many cases against me and have damaged more than 100 vehicles," the man can be heard telling the contractor during the conversation, the police said.

The city police formed special teams to investigate the recorded conversation and verify the genuineness of the persons in it, the police said in a press release. The man has been arrested based on the conversation, it said. 

(With agency inputs)