CBI arrests key accused in 1993 bombing of RSS' Chennai headquarter after 24 years

Twenty-four years after the attack on the RSS headquarters in Chennai which left 11 people dead, the CBI on Friday arrested Mushtaq Ahmed, one of the main accused in the case. Ahmed, 56, who had eluded the CBI for 24 years was arrested in the morning from the outskirts of Chennai, CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said. Out of all accused, he was the only person who had escaped arrest so far. Ahmed had allegedly procured the explosive material for assembling the bomb and provided shelter to the other accused, officials said. [caption id=“attachment_4257195” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] According to a PTI report published in  DNA, a TADA court had convicted 11 people after 14 years of the blast. Four persons, however, were acquitted, including SA Basha, founder of the banned Al Umma, for lack of evidence against them. Kaja Nizamuddin, Hyder Ali and Abubakkar Siddique were awarded jail terms ranging from ten years rigorous imprisonment to life sentences under various sections of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) for causing death due to terrorist act and criminal conspiracy, among other things. Seven others were awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment. Immam Ali, a suspected ISI agent who had escaped from custody in Madurai was gunned down in Bangalore in an encounter with the police on 29 September, 2002 while another accused, Jihad Committee Founder President Palani Baba, was hacked to death by suspected RSS sympathisers on 28 January, 1997. The blast on 8 August, 1993 was triggered using RDX. It brought down the multi-storeyed RSS office at Chetput in Chennai, claiming 11 lives.  The agency was entrusted with the probe the same year and it filed a chargesheet against 18 persons under the stringent provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Explosive Substances Act and Terrorist and Destructive Activities  revention) Act (TADA). The agency had announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for providing credible information about Ahmed. Of the 431 witnesses, 224 were examined during the course of the trial which commenced on August 7, 1995. The chargesheet was filed on 8 June, 1994. With inputs from agencies