Coimbatore City Police arrest key suspect of 1998 Coimbatore serial blast case

11-Jul-2025

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The Coimbatore city police and the Coimbatore unit of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on July 9 arrested one of the key accused ‘Tailor’ Raja (48) in the 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blasts, which claimed 58 lives and injured 250 people.  

Tailor Raja has been on the run since 1996 after he was booked in a petrol bomb attack case against a jail warden in Coimbatore.

Raja, who was from Bilal Estate at Ukkadam in Coimbatore, has multiple aliases, including Sadiq, Valarntha Raja, Shahjahan Abdul Majid Makandar, and Shahjahan Shaik. 

Sources said he was arrested from Vijayapura (formerly known as Bijapur) district in North Karnataka on Wednesday by a joint team of ATS and city police personnel based on a tip-off.