Madani moves SC,HC for relief

As the arrest of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Naser Madani in the July 25,2008 Bangalore serial blasts case looked imminent...

As the arrest of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Naser Madani in the July 25,2008 Bangalore serial blasts case looked imminent,the cleric on Saturday moved the Supreme Court and the Karnataka High Court for relief. While his anticipatory bail appeal in the apex court argued that there was no need for his custodial interrogation,his High Court plea called for quashing the chargesheet filed against him by the Bangalore police.

Madani filed his urgent petition in the Supreme Court Registry even as Section 144 of the CrPC was clamped at Anwarassery in south Keralas Kollam district,where he was staying at an orphanage-cum-school complex. The matter is likely to be orally mentioned in the apex court on Monday.

Tension has been mounting ever since Justice N Ananda of the Karnataka High Court dismissed Madanis plea for anticipatory bail while observing that there was enough prima facie evidence to try him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,1967. The High Court had termed the blasts as a terrorist act.

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Seeking a stay of the High Court order,Madanis petition contended that the lower court did not go into the merits of the case.

It argues that there is no need for his custodial interrogation as the investigation in the case is over with the filing of chargesheet on December 23,2008.

It is an admitted fact that Madani was not in Bangalore on July 25,2008 (the date of the blasts). He was somewhere in Kerala. So,he is only charged with conspiracy,and no custodial interrogation is required in his case, advocate Adolf Mathew,Madanis lawyer in the Supreme Court,told The Sunday Express.

Madani,whose arrest warrant is pending execution by the Bangalore police,filed the plea in the Karnataka High Court to quash an additional chargesheet filed in June this year on the grounds that the police had falsely implicated him in the blasts case.

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The plea to delete his name from the chargesheet comes after a Sessions court and a single-judge Bench of the Karnataka High Court rejected anticipatory bail pleas made by Madani over the past two months after finding that the Bangalore police had made out a prima facie case against the Kerala leader.

The single-judge Bench of the Karnataka High Court in fact questioned the Bangalore police for the delay in securing the arrest of Madani.

Madani was named as accused number 31 in the June chargesheet by the Bangalore police on the basis of a statement provided by main accused Tadiyandavede Nasir,a former associate of Madani who was arrested in November last year.

The arrest warrant issued against Madani by the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Bangalore is returnable by August 17. A team of policemen from Bangalore has been camping in Kollam over the past four days to carry out the arrest with the cooperation of the Kerala Police. Madani was also accused in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts case but was later acquitted.

(With ENS Thiruvananthapuram)