Why Kerala Govt. Safegaurding Madni’s former gaurds from Karnataka Police?

K’taka Police serve notices on Madani’s former guards
VR Jayaraj | Kollam – Daily Pioneer

The Karnataka Police team probing the 2008 Bangalore bombings has once again served notice on the four former Kerala Police body guards of Islamist leader Abdul Nasser Madani, already arrested as 31st accused in the blasts case, asking them to appear before the investigators in Bangalore within a week.

The Bangalore police had served notices on the policemen four months back but they had not appeared before the investigators reportedly because of lack of clearance from the Government. The investigators are said to be planning to include the policemen as witnesses in the case.

The notices were served once again in the context of the statement by Kerala Director General of Police Jacob Punnoose on September 9 that the Karnataka Police had not so far formally informed him or the force about their plan to question the four policemen. Punnoose had said that the Kerala Police would give all assistance to their Karnataka counterparts in this regard once they formally sought it.

The Bangalore police team wants the four policemen– Shajahan, Nabeel, Basheer and Sajeev – in the Karnataka capital to question them in connection with the trip of Madani to Coorg where he allegedly participated in a conspiracy for carrying out the 2008 blasts. Madani has claimed that the records of his travels available with the Kerala Police would prove the charge false but the investigators refuse to go by the police log.

Harshita Attaluri, Superintendent of Police, Kollam reportedly received the notices to the four policemen, sent by Bangalore Police’s Deputy Commissioner Omkarayya, on Monday. Shajahan has already accepted the notice, while those for the other three policemen, presently posted in Idukki, Wayanad and Malappuram districts, would be handed over by the respective SPs.

The Karnataka Police have been trying to get the four policemen for questioning for the past four months. They particularly want to question Shajahan, who was reported to have been close to Madani personally. They had sent a letter to Shajahan on July 6 regarding this. However, he said he had not been given permission to go to Bangalore.

According to the Bangalore police, Madani, while undergoing treatment at a hospital at Mukkom, Kozhikode, had visited Coorg, met LeT’s South India boss Thadiyantavide Nazeer, also first accused in the bombings case, and took part in the conspiracy. The Bangalore police think that the police body guards of Madani could provide more information regarding this.

The additional chargesheet submitted by the Karnataka Police in which Madani was listed as an accused had not specified the date of Madani’s visit to Coorg. There are also no references to such a trip in the log of Madani’s travels in the possession of the Kerala Police. In this context, the investigators feel that questioning his former body guards is vital.

The four policemen were assigned to provide security for Madani, who was put under B-Category security after his release on August 1, 2007 from a Coimbatore prison.

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