The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed charges in a Special Court in Poonamallee, Chennai, against four ex-members of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) for sheltering the proclaimed offenders involved in the Ramalingam murder case. The accused, named K. Mohideen, Mohamed Imran, Thameem Ansari, and Asmath, are alleged to have harbored the assailants and conspirators responsible for the fatal attack on Ramalingam in Thirubhuvanam.
According to the NIA, the four individuals have been charged under Section 61(2) of BNS and Section 249 BNS r/w 19 UA (P) Act for their involvement in the larger conspiracy to incite communal disharmony and terror. Ramalingam was brutally killed on February 5, 2019, by PFI members during an altercation when he tried to prevent them from carrying out forced religious conversions near Pakku Vinayakam Thoppu.
The NIA’s investigation, as part of case RC‑06/2019/NIA/DLI, revealed that the accused had provided shelter to two proclaimed offenders, Mohamed Burhanudeen and Mohamed Nabil Hassan, for approximately six years despite knowing about their roles in the murder. Previously, the NIA had charged 18 individuals, including six absconding proclaimed offenders, in the case. Subsequently, four proclaimed offenders were arrested, followed by the apprehension of two other accomplices, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Imthathulla, who were charged in May 2025 and February 2026, respectively.
In a separate incident, former Trinamool Congress legislator Saokat Molla was remanded to 14 days of NIA custody by a special court in Kolkata in connection with a bomb blast in Bhangar, South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, prior to the recent Assembly polls. Saokat Molla, arrested on Friday night, had a mobile phone and a pen drive seized by the NIA, with the court approving forensic examinations of these items. The NIA had previously arrested three individuals linked to the blast, with two in jail custody and one still under NIA custody, and the court also granted forensic examination of electronic devices recovered from these three individuals.
