After a two-year search,the police Tuesday claimed to have nabbed one of the prime accused involved in the conspiracy to detonate a crude bomb near Madurai targeting senior BJP leader L K Advani on October 28,2011. Mohamed Hanifa was arrested by a special investigation team led by DIG John Nicholson from a hideout in Batlagundu,Dindigul district. He is alleged to be a fundamentalist who has also been booked for the murder of a Hindu Munnani leader and three of his brothers a few years ago. The police also booked him for attacking DSP M Karthikeyan when the official was trying to nab him. He was produced before a Madurai court that remanded him in judicial custody for 15 days. The police have now intensified the search for two other suspects. The SIT is now looking for the main accused in the case,Fakruddin Ali Ahmed. So far,eight persons have been arrested,of which six were given bail by the Madras High Court. An accused,Jahir Hussain,an auto driver,tried to end his life in the court on Tuesday. On October 28,2011,hours before Advanis Jan Chetna Yatra was to pass through Alampatti,Madurai,the bomb detection squad found a pipe bomb with six kg of Power Gel 90,an industrial explosive used in stone quarries,under a causeway.
