Soofiya Madani gets conditional bail

The wife of People's Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Madani, Soofiya Madani, arrested in connection with the Tamil Nadu bus burning case, was on Wednesday granted conditional bail by a court in Kochi, Kerala.

Ernakulam sessions court judge D Papachan granted bail to Soofiya on her executing a bond of Rs 1 lakh and providing two sureties for the same amount.

The judge directed her not to leave the jurisdiction of the sessions court and appear before investigating officials as and when required and to surrender her passport in the court within a week. She was also directed not to intimidate the witnesses.

Soofiya, who was arrested on December 17, was remanded to judicial custody by judicial first class magistrate court at Aluva, which had rejected her bail plea.

However, on complaints of ill health, Soofiya was shifted from Ernakulam sub-jail to Alapuzha medical college hospital, where she is currently undergoing treatment.

Citing ill health, Soofiya again moved for bail in the sessions court which was granted on Wednesday.

Soofiya's arrest followed the detention of suspected terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative T Nazir, the main accused in the September 2005 burning of a Tamil Nadu bus at nearby Kalamassery, in protest against continued detention of Madani in Coimbatore jail in connection with the 1998 serial blasts.

She was listed as an accused in the case.

Nazir, wanted in connection with various terror-related cases in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, was arrested along with an associate on Indo-Bangladesh border on December 2 and brought to Bengaluru for interrogation.