In a shocking revelation by Security agencies, it has emerged that there was a plan afoot to assassinate PM Modi. The audio clip of a plan to assassinate PM Modi has gone viral on Social Media. According to the news reports, the culprit, Mohammed Rafiq, was heard talking to a Truck contractor based in Salem about eliminating the Prime Minister of India. In the viral audio clip, Rafiq boasts about his role in the Coimbatore blasts and claims that he is planning to assassinate PM Modi. In 1998, there were a series of bomb blasts during a rally of BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani. Mohammed Rafiq was convicted in the case.
According to the reports, Mohammed Rafiq has served sentence under Goonda Act, TADA and National Security Act in connection to the Coimbatore blasts case. The Coimbatore blasts claimed 58 lives and worth millions of property damages. The target of these blasts, perpetrated by Al Ummah group, was BJP leader LK Advani who escaped unscathed. Later, during the trial, the conspirators claimed that the blasts were an act of revenge for anti-Muslim riots. In a wide-spread crackdown, the Tamilnadu Police had banned the Al Ummah group and its leader SA Basha was deemed the main conspirator by the judicial probe in the blast case headed by Justice PR Gokulakrishnan. SA Basha was later convicted and sentenced to a life-term in 2002. In a further crackdown on radical Islamist groups, a number of Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazagam leaders were arrested including TMMK President M.H. Jawahirulla and treasurer S.M. Bakkar.
In the viral audio clip, in the eight-minute-long telephonic conversation, Rafiq is heard saying, “We have decided to kill Prime Minister Modi. We were the ones who planted bombs during (BJP leader) L K Advani’s visit to Coimbatore in 1998.” Rafiq further claimed that he has been to all the jails in Tamilnadu and boasted that he has many cases against him and has damaged more than 100 vehicles. The Coimbatore police came to know about the audio clip on Saturday and formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for further investigation. City Police Commissioner K Periaiah said that further investigation is ongoing to ascertain the level of threat against PM Modi.
“The conversation was mainly related to finances about vehicles,” according to a PTI report citing a police officer as saying. “But suddenly the blast convict was heard saying ‘we have decided to eliminate PM Modi, as we were the ones who had planted bombs when BJP leader LK Advani visited the Coimbatore in 1998’.”
Mohammad Rafiq has been booked under IPC section 153 (A) (promoting enmity among different groups on grounds of religion) and 560 (i) (criminal intimidation) and was remanded under judicial custody.
It must be noted that threatening the Prime Minister of India of physical harm is punishable offence under IPC. Given that PM Modi is about to embark on a campaign trail in South Indian State of Karnataka, the assassination threat must be taken seriously and further investigations should continue to ascertain involvements of other groups or people.