Police in Kerala’s Kollam seized a car on Thursday that had a sticker of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden on the rear side. The police said that the car is registered in West Bengal.
News 18 reported that the driver of the car told the Eravipuram police that the vehicle had been hired from a resident of Pallimukku for a wedding.
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Upon investigation the police found the owner in Pallimukku and summoned him to the police station. The owner reportedly confirmed that the car was registered in Bengal and that he bought it around a year ago.
Reports say that the police was alerted by a local resident who spotted the car frequently coming to Kollam. According to International Business Times, the local resident gave photos of the car to the police.
The passengers present in the car at the time it was seized were released on bail. The owner, too, was granted bail but asked to report to the police station whenever summoned.
Reports say that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), too, has kickstarted an investigation about the car.
Ever since the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, NIA intensified its probe in a case of disappearance of 21 people from the state in May 2016. They are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the barbaric terror group.
While 17 of them were from Kasargod, four were from Palakkad. Among them were six women and children.
On Monday the NIA arrested Riyas Aboobacker or Abu Dujana, a resident of Palakkad who is believed to be a follower of Sri Lankan Easter bombing mastermind Zahran Hashim, on charges of conspiring to commit a terrorist act in Kerala.
During interrogation, 29-year-old Riyas revealed that he has been following speeches and videos of Hashim for more than a year and has also followed the speeches of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.
He admitted that he wanted to carry out a suicide attack in Kerala, an NIA spokesperson said.