Fugitive for 29 years, Coimbatore serial blast accused lived as chilli trader in Karnataka

For co-traders at the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) yard Vijayapura in northern Karnataka, Shahjahan Shaik was yet another small-scale commission agent. They did not have the slightest clue of his dark past until policemen from Tamil Nadu cornered and arrested him on Wednesday.

Police said ‘Tailor’ Raja, 50, a key accused in the 1998 serial bombings in Coimbatore and communal murder cases across Tamil Nadu, had been residing in Vijayapura, in the name of Shahjahan Shaik for over 10 years. An alleged former member of the now-banned extremist outfit Al Ummah, Raja kept a low profile as a chilli commission agent at the APMC yard in Vijayapura and lived a normal life with his wife and children.

Sources said Raja, who also went by the aliases Sadiq, ‘Valarntha’ Raja, Shahjahan Abdul Majid Makandar, led a long fugitive life of 29 years in various places, including Hubballi, Solapur, and Guntur, before settling in Vijayapura.

According to the Tamil Nadu police, Raja had been at large for the past 29 years since 1996, a year in which he was involved in two communal murder cases. He had been named an accused in the murder of jailor Jayaprakash in Madurai in 1997 and the serial bombings in Coimbatore in 1998 subsequently.

“After settling in Vijayapura, he kept a very low profile. After his second marriage, he led a normal life with his wife and children. He never expected the police would trace him after nearly three decades,” said a police source.

A special team of the Coimbatore City Police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS Coimbatore unit), traced Raja to Vijayapura by constantly pursuing intelligence. The police, however, are yet to find out whether Raja continued his contact with his family members in Coimbatore or with any radical outfits in any form during the fugitive years. Though the police team searched his rented house, they could not find any incriminating materials. However, Raja had reportedly obtained documents, including an Aadhaar card, in the name of Shahjahan Shaik, sources added.

Proclaimed offender

The Third Judicial Magistrate Court in Coimbatore had declared Raja as a proclaimed offender in November 2022, as he was wanted for the murder of Boopalan, a jail warder of the Coimbatore Central Prison in 1996.

As per the police findings, Raja, Abbas alias ‘Oosi’ Abbas, Abuthahir, and Shamsudheen hurled five Molotov cocktails at Boopalan, who was on duty at the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Prisons) in Coimbatore on April 22, 1996. They also attacked Boopalan with weapons, and he died two days later. The murder was to take revenge on prison warders, who allegedly ill-treated Muslim prisoners. Abbas, Abuthahir, and Shamsudheen were acquitted in the case.