Kannur: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Crime Branch, formed to probe the massive explosion in Keezhara, Kannur, will interrogate Anoop Malik, the key suspect in the case. Malik’s relative, Muhammad Arsham, was killed in the blast that occurred in the early hours of Saturday.

Police nabbed Malik from Kasaragod's Kanhangad while attempting to flee from the state soon after the blast. 

Anoop Malik, a powerlifter, has been booked in seven similar cases. According to the police, Malik has won several medals in the above-40 category in powerlifting.

An officer said that Malik initially earned his livelihood by purchasing firecrackers in bulk and supplying them for festivals and celebrations. Later, he entered the illegal firecracker trade, which brought him huge profits. He subsequently began manufacturing high-intensity firecrackers and explosive items resembling bombs, the officer added. These activities led to seven cases being registered against him prior to Saturday’s fatal explosion.

Malik is an accused in two separate cases filed in 2009 and 2013 for the unauthorised storage of firecrackers in rented houses. Eight years ago, police arrested him while he was travelling in an autorickshaw carrying explosives.

Police also launched an investigation against Malik after suspecting that he had supplied the gunpowder used in a bomb attack on a house at 12 Kandy, Chala, near Thottada, where a wedding was being held. A friend of the bridegroom was killed in that incident, which took place in February 2022.

Malik was also a suspect in the case related to the 2018 seizure of high-intensity firecrackers from a plot owned by the Kannur City Corporation. However, the investigation was not pursued further. The explosives, weighing around 200 kg, were found in a chimney and nearby buildings of a waste-treatment plant set up on land that previously belonged to Elayavoor panchayat at Chalakkunnu. The panchayat was later merged with the Kannur City Corporation.

In 2009, police seized a huge stock of firecrackers illegally stored by Malik in a building at Aaramkottam. In 2013, they raided another house—owned by an NRI at Arayakkandippara in Azhikode—which Malik had been using as an illegal godown for explosives. Incidentally, Malik’s ancestral house was also destroyed when firecrackers stored there by him exploded.