Chennai, June 6 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday filed charges in a Special Court at Poonamallee, Chennai, against four former cadres of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) for harbouring the proclaimed offenders (POs) involved in the Ramalingam murder case, an official said.

The chargesheet named K. Mohideen, Mohamed Imran, Thameem Ansari, and Asmath, for knowingly harbouring the assailants and conspirators involved in the fatal attack on Ramalingam in Thirubhuvanam, as part of a larger conspiracy aimed at creating communal disharmony and terror, the NIA said in a statement.

They have been charged under Section 61(2) of BNS and Section 249 BNS r/w 19 UA (P) Act, said the statement.

Ramalingam was brutally killed on February 5, 2019 by PFI members who got into an altercation with him when he tried to stop them from undertaking forcible religious conversions near Pakku Vinayakam Thoppu, the NIA said.

The NIA’s investigations in the case RC‑06/2019/NIA/DLI revealed that the four accused had sheltered two POs, Mohamed Burhanudeen and Mohamed Nabil Hassan, for nearly six years despite being aware of their role in the murder.

Earlier, the NIA chargesheeted 18 accused, including six absconding POs, in the case. Four of the POs were subsequently arrested by the NIA. The agency later also nabbed two other harbourers, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Imthathulla, and chargesheeted them in May 2025 and February 2026, respectively.

In a separate development, former Trinamool Congress legislator Saokat Molla was remanded to 14 days of NIA custody on Saturday by a special court in Kolkata in connection with a bomb blast at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal before the recently concluded Assembly polls.

He will be presented at the NIA court again on June 19.

After his arrest on Friday night, the sleuths of the NIA recovered a mobile phone and a pen drive from Saokat’s possession. The court also granted NIA’s application for forensic examinations of these two items.

The NIA had earlier arrested three people in connection with the blast. Two of them are in jail custody now, and the third person is still in NIA custody.

The judge also granted the application for forensic examination of the electronic devices recovered from these three persons arrested by the NIA earlier.

–IANS

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