The 29-year-old, alleged to be the key conspirator of the blast, was a calm person who didn’t speak much and never had visitors, says his mother-in-law; he had also quit working at a bookshop
The 29-year-old, alleged to be the key conspirator of the blast, was a calm person who didn’t speak much and never had visitors, says his mother-in-law; he had also quit working at a bookshop
The house of her parents at Al-Ameen Colony, a densely populated area near Ukkadam, has always been a place of solace for H. Nazareth, wife of Jameesha Mubin, 29, who was killed in the car explosion at Kottaimedu in Coimbatore on October 23.
While leaving for her parents’ home a few days before the blast, the 24-year-old woman with speech and hearing impairment never knew that she and her two daughters, aged three and four, would never have to return to the couple’s rented house on H.M.P.R. Street at Kottaimedu.
“They got married in 2017 after a proposal came through known persons. We never expected that he [Mubin] would engage in such activities. He used to be a calm person, though he wouldn’t speak much,” Ms. Nazareth’s mother Kurshith Begum told The Hindu on Friday.
Mubin worked at a bookshop for a few years. He underwent treatment for eyes in 2020 and did not go to work for a few months thereafter. He stopped working at the bookshop, complaining of chest pain while lifting books.
“Though he told us that he started a small-scale cloth business, he did not tell much about it. In fact, he was not very open to us [in-laws]. Though he claimed to work at a shop selling country medicines at Saramedu, he hardly seemed to have worked for the past one year,” said Ms. Nazareth’s brother H. Nijas, who works at a sticker shop.
Financial support
According to Ms. Begum, the family supported the couple financially, while Mubin would bear the daily expenses of the family. The advance payment for the rented house on H.M.P.R. Street was paid by Ms. Nazareth’s family.
“They moved to their last house a month ago. We [Begum and I] also stayed with them for a week as it was a new place. Our daughter came to us with children on October 20 as she was unwell. Mubin visited her and the children the next day. That was the last time we saw him,” said Ms. Nazareth’s father P.M. Haneefa, who runs a grocery store at Selvapuram.
Ms. Begum said Ms. Nazareth or anyone in the family had never seen Mubin involved in any suspicious activity. He hardly had visitors at home. “He learnt driving about two months ago,” she said.
NIA interrogation
Mr. Nijas said he did not notice the poster in Tamil that Mubin put up as his WhatsApp display picture a few days before the blast. According to him, Mubin told the family that the interrogation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2019 was merely to ask about details of a few others and not over any activity he was involved in.
“The NIA or the police did not tell us much why he was questioned. Had these agencies monitored him after 2019, the present situation could have been avoided. Now our family has borne the brunt of his actions,” Mr. Nijas added.