Embarrassment for CPM in Kerala ;Court orders probe against Madani’s wife

In a major setback to
the CPI(M), which has tied up with the PDP of Abdul Nasser Madani in
Kerala, a court has ordered an investigation into the alleged role of
Sufiya Madani, wife of the PDP chairman, in the case related to the
burning of a Tamil Nadu Transport Corporation bus at Kalamassery off
Kochi on September 9, 2005.

After considering a public interest
litigation, Judicial First Class Magistrate Aluva on Wednesday asked
the Kalamassery police to probe the case and submit a preliminary
report before June 1. The court’s action followed a PIL filed by PD
Joseph of Thrissur, who challenged the reluctance of the police to
investigate the case despite the statement by an accused and several
other reports that directly alleged Sufiya’s role in the incident.

Majeed
Parambayi, fifth accused in the case, had told the police that Sufiya
had engineered and executed the bus-burning operation as a revenge
against the alleged torture of Madani in Coimbatore Jail where he was
lodged as an accused in the serial bombings there in 1998.

The
court’s order was seen as a direct setback for Madani, who had last
week claimed that Majeed had not given such a statement to the police
but they had written it all down on paper and forcibly got him to sign
it. He had earlier claimed that Sufiya was a poor woman who could not
muster the courage even to burn a bicycle, let alone a bus.

The
order could also cause some discomfort for the CPI(M), whose Politburo
member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the Home Minister of the State, had
recently said there would be no probe against Sufiya or Madani as all
the allegations were old. The Congress-led UDF and the BJP were sure to
use the court order as an electoral weapon against the LDF in the
contest of the alliance between the PDP and the CPI(M).

Records
with the Kerala Police had said that Sufiya herself had planned the
burning of the bus, intending to deal a blow to the Tamil Nadu
authorities for torturing Madani in the prison at Coimbatore. Majeed, a
native of Kannur and former Kannur district secretary of Madani’s PDP,
had told the police that Sufiya had planned and funded the operation.

Majeed
had given the statement involving Sufiya’s name to the Additional
Police Commissioner, who was probing the case, on December 4, 2005.
According to reports, it was Majeed, who used to visit Madani at the
Coimbatore prison, who had told Sufiya about the torture on Madani.

According
to the statement with the police, Sufiya had wanted to “give a dose” to
the Tamil Nadu authorities for torturing her husband. When Majeed asked
her what they could do, she said they would burn a Tamil Nadu bus. He
had also told the police that Sufiya had asked about the availability
of suitable persons to carry out the operation.

Majeed then
contacted Shafeeq, Ashiq and Ummer Farooq, the other accused in the
case. He told the police that Sufiya had given Rs 20,000 each to those
who carried out the bus-burning operation.

Serious allegations
in the form of witness depositions and statement by terror accused had
already come up against Sufiya Madani. According to one report, Sufiya
was the local guardian of the daughter of Sainuddeen alias Abdul

Sattar, said to be the manufacturer of explosives that went off in the various Indian cities last year.

Sainuddeen’s
daughter had been attending a lower primary English medium school
staying at the house of Sufiya. The principal of the school had told
the Kochi Police that Sufiya was the local guardian of Sainuddeen’s
child, according to school records. There were also reports that the
four Malayalee militants killed in Kashmir by security forces last
October had celebrated Id at Sufiya’s place.

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