A representative image of a bomb detection unit in action in Tamil Nadu. File | Photo credit: The Hindu
Early on 30 May 1999, a low-intensity explosion occurred at the Victoria Student Hostel in Triplicane, Chennai. Although no one was injured in the blast, which left a hole in the wall, the incident came amid escalating intelligence reports of possible sabotage. It also happened a year after the sensational Coimbatore serial bomb blast incident that left 47 dead and hundreds injured.
Soon after the blast, the Tamil Nadu police launched a pre-dawn operation by conducting simultaneous searches in major cities across the state. Investigators suspected that the explosives may have been planted at main train stations, bus stops, commercial streets, places of worship and other places where public gatherings gather.
Bombs in police premises
However, they had no idea that the bombs could have been planted in their own premises, which are under constant surveillance by armed police. Explosive bags with timer were found at Commissioner of Police, Inspector General of Police, Jail Office Complex, Chennai, Variety Hall Road Police Quarters, Coimbatore and Cantonment Police Club, Tiruchi.
Detectives from the bomb detection and disposal unit were called and the explosives were defused. Early intervention by police teams averted major embarrassment to the squad within hours of the first blast in Chennai. Some pamphlets accusing the state and prison authorities of harassing innocent Muslim prisoners arrested in connection with the Coimbatore serial blasts were found at the crime scene.
The then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi called an emergency press conference to announce that explosives weighing about 5 kg stuffed in shopping bags had been seized. He ordered Crime Branch CID to investigate the case and unravel the conspiracy.
The CB-CID formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate five cases registered by the local police and then hand them over to the agency. “The CB-CID investigation could prove that these were not stray incidents but part of a larger conspiracy hatched by a hardcore fundamentalist to retaliate and take revenge on the state for the perceived/alleged ill-treatment of Muslim prisoners arrested and detained in various jails in the Coimbatore serial blast cases4 which appeared in an article published in February 1991. daily.
Explosives transported by train
Suspicions that the planting of bombs at various locations in Tamil Nadu could be part of a conspiracy to cause blasts in other parts of the country came true when the railway police seized explosives from the Kochi-Kurla Express.
The two suspects – Abubacker Siddique and Mohammed Yusuf – carried the explosives in hand bags in the general compartment to their destination in Maharashtra. However, when they saw fumes emanating from one of the bags, they abandoned the consignment and jumped off the train near Chempalikund in Payyangadi police station limits in Kerala.
The Kasargod police registered a case and handed over the investigation to the CB-CID of Kerala. Investigations confirmed that a conspiracy was hatched in various areas across Tamil Nadu to trigger blasts at multiple locations. Although the two suspects were found to have come from Ilayankudi to board the train, the source of the explosives and the exact location in Maharashtra where they were headed were not clarified.
Abubacker Siddique, suspected of terrorism due to his allegiance to Al Umma and wanted in several cases, has remained elusive since 1995. A special team of the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Tamil Nadu Police arrested him along with his associate Mohammed Ali from Annamayya district in Andhra Pradesh in July, by the end of 2025. The suspected cases will now be reopened.
The Tamil Nadu CB-CID joined all the cases together and filed the charge sheet in a designated court in Chennai on 25 October 2000. Six years later, the court convicted all 19 accused, except Abubacker Siddique and Mohammed Ali, as they were absconding then. Five suspects became approvers. However, the CB-CID has proposed a court seeking to treat the approvers as accused in the case, said a report published in the journal.
The period from 1995 to 2002 was quite difficult for the state police. Apart from the Coimbatore serial blasts case, Tamil Nadu witnessed the Munnani Hindu office blast and the Nagore bomb case, the murder case of Professor KR Paramasivam in
Published – 01 April 2026 06:00 IST
