Karnataka HC reserves order on Madani plea

The Karnataka High Court reserved its orders on a petition filed by arrested PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madani praying for quashing of the charge sheet filed against him in connection with the 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts. During a hearing on the petition which came up before Justice Subhash B Adi, Special Public Prosecutor H S Chandramouli opposed the plea contending that there was enough evidence against Madani for his complicity in the blasts.

Chandramouli said statements of many witnesses have been recorded which reveal a "nexus between Madani and the Bengaluru blasts. Besides, we also have incriminating evidence in the form of independent material and phone records to show that he is one of the conspirators in the blasts". Madani's counsels Ravi B Naik and P Usman, however, argued that the PDP leader, who was arrested in Kollam in Kerala, was being "framed" in the case and there was "no material to implicate" him. "

The fact that T Nasir, accused number one had spoken to Madani, was never brought out in the first charge sheet. The veracity of it

has to be ascertained. Further the phone numbers furnished in the additional charge sheet do not belong to Madani and this material was not there in the first charge sheet but created subsequently," they said. They also contended that one of the witnesses in the case, Jose Verghese, cited by the prosecution to have overheard the word "Bangalore blasts" being mentioned by Madani while talking to Nasir, "does not cite any details of the conspiracy or whether he overheard the word prior or after the blasts took place. How can such a statement be enough to nail him".

After hearing both the sides, Justice Adi reserved his orders. Speaking to reporters later, Chandramouli said Nasir had leased out a land at Hosathota in Kodagu district "which was being used as meeting place for such things (conspiracies) on the pretext of cultivating ginger". He said the statements of as many as 255 witnesses had been recorded and of the 31 accused in the Bangalore blasts, "15-16 persons are PDP members". "Now that Madani has been arrested he may reveal a lot more things about the conspiracy," he said.