COIMBATORE: Six people were arrested on Wednesday morning for plotting to kill Hindu Makkal Katchi leaders.
The men were caught hatching a criminal conspiracy in front of the Sultan mosque in R S Puram early Wednesday morning. All residents of Coimbatore, they had been tracked by police after they were found roaming around near the Ukkadam Police Station in a suspicious manner. “We had received a tip off from some extremists arrested in Chennai that there was a plot to kill Hindu Munnani and Makkal Katchi leaders,” said the Selvapuram police station inspector. “We also received a tip that a secret meeting was going to be held in Selvapuram,” said another police officer. A special team was formed to collect information about the meeting,the officer added.
It was during this time that police found the men roaming suspiciously. “We realised that the meeting would be held in R S Puram instead,” said the official. On interrogation, police found that the men were plotting the murders of Hindu Makkal Katchi leaders like Arjun Sampath and Mookambikai Mani, because such leaders were reportedly ?working against the interests of Muslims’. The accused were slowly growing in the ranks of extremists in the city. “While one of the accused Abdul Rehman was found to be a former SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) member, Saddam Hussain and three others were youth members of Popular Front of India (PFI),” said the police inspector.
Most well-known leaders belonging to the Hindu Makkal Katchi and Hindu Munnani were given personal security officers after the Hindu Munnani’s former Thiruvallur district president Suresh Kumar was hacked to death on June 18.
The men arrested were Saddam Hussain, Abdul Zuan, Rehmatullah Ali, Abdul Rasheed, Mohammed Azharuddin and Abdul Rehman. All the accused were remanded to 15 days judicial custody.