The Centre on Thursday handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) the probe into the October 23 terror blast near a temple in Coimbatore.
The decision came after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin recommended an investigation by the NIA into the blast in which an engineer was killed.
"The Union Home Ministry decided to hand over the Coimbatore blast case to the NIA," a senior Ministry official said.
The Tamil Nadu Government said the decision to recommend the probe to the NIA was taken as there is involvement of factors "extraneous to the State" and "possible international links".
On Sunday, a car loaded with two gas cylinders exploded near a temple in Coimbatore. It was being driven by one Jameesha Mubin, a 29-year-old engineering graduate.Mubin had attempted to get past a police check post near the temple, but fled after failing to do so, State Police Chief C Sylendra Babu told reporters on Monday.
The police has arrested five persons who had been in contact with Mubin, and charged them under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, inlcuding Muhammed Talka, Muhammed Azharuddin and Muhammed Riyaz
Mubin was under the NIA scanner in 2019 in the aftermath of the Easter bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, but no case was filed against him, police said.
On Wednesday, the Tamil Nadu Government recommended to the Centre to conduct a probe by NIA into the Coimbatore explosion case after links of ISIS modules merged in the car blast.
The State Government has also announced raising a special police force to foil sabotage and bolster its intelligence wing. The decision to hand over the probe to the NIA was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister MK Stalin on the present status of the investigation into the case.
On Sunday, 75 kg of explosives were seized in Coimbatore from the residence of Mubin who was killed after a gas cylinder exploded. The explosion occurred while Mubin was moving past a temple in a car in the textile city and he had allegedly tried to evade a police check post.
Before the case was formally handed over to the NIA, senior officials of the federal anti-terror agency held discussions in Coimbatore on Wednesday with Tamil Nadu police in connection with the blast case probe.