Chennai: Carrying on with its probe in the blasts outside court premises in South India since April this year, NIA today arrested two more persons for their alleged involvement in the conspiracy to carry out bomb explosions by a group sympathising with terror outfit Al-Qaeda.

With today’s arrest, the number of people arrested in the case has gone up to five. The NIA, along with police forces from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, had arrested three persons yesterday for the five bomb blast cases in court premises in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka since April.

Among those arrested today was Mohammed Ayub Ali, who was detained last night. Ali (25), who is from Madurai and works as a public liaison officer for a hearing aid company, was placed under arrest today, an NIA spokesman said.

The other person arrested was Shamsudeen, 25, also a resident of Madurai, after his name cropped up during interrogations of the others arrested by the NIA.

The cases relate to blasts inside a vehicle at the parking area in the district court complex in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh on April 7; in the parking area of the CJM Court Complex at Kollam, Kerala on June 15; inside the court complex at Mysuru on August 1; in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh on September 12 and inside a toilet complex of the judicial court, Malappuram, Kerala on November 1.

The NIA had arrested Abbas Ali, Suleiman and Samsum Karim Raja, all residents of Tamil Nadu. The NIA spokesman had claimed that the arrested accused “during sustained interrogation confessed to their involvement in these blasts.”

Ali, a school dropout, was working as a painter and also ran a library in the name ‘Darul Ilm’ at Madurai. Raja is a Commerce graduate and runs a chicken broiler shop at Kannimara Koil Street in Madurai. Suleiman was working in a software firm. He was the leader of the terrorist group which was influenced by the ideology of Osama bin Laden.

The group had claimed responsibility for the blasts and circulated pamphlets, pen drives and CDs in the name of “The Base Movement”, translation of the word Al-Qaeda.