Hindu Front leader murder case: NIA attaches assets of PFI member in Coimbatore

New Delhi [India], June 7 (ANI): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has attached the property of a Popular Front of India (PFI) member involved in the 2016 murder of a Hindu Front leader in Coimbatore, the agency said on Friday.

The property of accused Subair has been attached on orders of the NIA Special Court, Poonamallee, Chennai.

As per the NIA, Subair, along with other co-accused, all members of the proscribed PFI (Popular Front of India), were involved in the gruesome killing of C Sasikumar, Spokesperson, Hindu Front, Coimbatore.

Sasikumar was brutally hacked with lethal weapons while he was returning home from his party office on his two-wheeler on September 22, 2016.

The accused, Saddam Hussain, Subair, Mubarak, and Rafiqul Hassan, had attacked the victim in front of Chakra Vinayaka Temple, under Thudiyalur Police Station limit, Coimbatore. Sasikumar sustained grievous injuries and later succumbed to the same.

NIA took up the case from Coimbatore police and re-registered it as RC-03/2018/NIA/DLI.

The NIA said it found that the conspiracy was hatched by accused PFI members with the aim of creating terror among a particular community and without any provocation or enmity.

“NIA, which has already chargesheeted all five accused in the case, found during the investigation that Subair had, in 2020, transferred his property, purchased in 2012, to his mother via a gift settlement deed. Since the transfer took place after the commission of the crime and post filing of the chargesheet, it was seen by the NIA as an attempt to thwart legal action against Subair,” said the anti-terror agency.

In 2023, the NIA filed a petition seeking attachment and forfeiture of the property under Section 33 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The special court, seeing merit in the application, ordered the attachment.

The trial in this case commenced in 2022 and is ongoing.