The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday carried out search operations at 21 locations across nine districts of Tamil Nadu under its ongoing investigations into the murder of one Ramalingam in February 2019.
It had come to the fore that Ramalingam had opposed the Dawah work of Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders allegedly involved in converting Hindus to Islam.
ANI quoted sources as saying, "The NIA carried out these searches at the premises and hideouts of suspects linked to the banned PFI outfit based on intelligence inputs."
The NIA had arrested Rahman Sadiq, aged 41, a key conspirator in the case who had previously been on the run on August 2, 2021. A case in connection with the matter was first registered under sections 341, 294(b) and 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on February 6, 2019 at Thiruvidaimaruthur Police Station in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu for conspiring to kill Ramalingam on February 5, 2019.
Ramalingam was killed as he had "opposed the Dawah work of PFI leaders who were converting Hindus into Islam", according to the NIA.
"The killing was aimed to create terror in the minds of a particular section of people, to create enmity between different religious communities and to avenge and teach a lesson to Ramalingam, who had removed the “taqiyah” (skull cap) worn by one of the accused persons, and applied “thiruneer" (sacred ash) on the forehead of accused Mohammed Farooq in order to portray that all religions are same."
On March 7, 2019, the NIA re-registered the case and took over the investigation. Earlier, it had filed a chargesheet against 18 accused on August 2, 2019.
After the arrest of Rahman Sadiq, NIA said that he was the administrator of Dawah's work of PFI in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu.
Rahman Sadiq along with other accused persons had conspired in Thirubhuvanam on February 52019 against Ramalingam by chopping his hands. He and the other co-conspirators had arranged weapons, vehicles, and hideouts for executing the plan.
"Rahman Sadiq was also instrumental in recruiting members for committing this terrorist act. After killing Ramalingam, accused Rahman Sadiq was hiding at various places in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh before being apprehended. A reward of Rs 5 lakh was announced by the NIA for information relating to his apprehension and he was also declared as Proclaimed Offender by the NIA Special Court," the NIA said.
