Madni – To move up from 31st to 5th or 6th accused in Bangalore Blast case

Madani yet to start cooperating with probe

VR Jayaraj | Kochi – Daily Pioneer

The Karnataka Police team probing the Bangalore blasts is going ahead with its determination to prove the charges it has slapped on Kerala’s Islamist leader and PDP supremo Abdul Nasser Madani in the Bangalore bombings case, but reports from the Karnataka capital say that he is yet to start cooperating with the questioning and evidence-gathering exercises.

After the initial questioning in Bangalore – since his arrest as 31st accused in Kollam on August 17 – was over, he was taken to Lokeri Estate, Coorg, where the conspiracy for the 2008 LeT terror blasts was held, for evidence-gathering on Saturday. Sources said that the mission in Coorg would be over only by Monday.

Sources in the Karnataka Police said that the interrogators were now convinced that Madani had been using the time between the presentation of chargesheet against him in the court on June 11 and his arrest on August 17 for studying the legal dimensions of the case. A source said that Madani seemed to be acting like an expert at criminal law during interrogation.

However, officials in the Karnataka Police say that the investigators had in their possession enough evidences and witness statements to prove their charges against Madani and they claimed that many of the rights activists who had been arguing in his favour would be proved wrong in the course of the proceedings. They said the case against Madani was not at all personal as some people were trying to project it.

Officials also said they did not expect Madani to readily provide them with the right kind of answers at the very beginning of the interrogation. They, however, indicated that the evidence-gathering in Coorg had produced better results than they had expected though they declined to reveal the details.

According to the Bangalore police, the conspiracy for the blasts was hatched at the farm house of a ginger estate that LeT’s South India chief Thadiyantavide Nazeer, also the first accused in the blasts case, had been running. Rafeeq and Prabhakar, 46th and 154th witnesses respectively, had told the police that they had seen a person with all the physical characteristics that suited Madani had been there at the camp.

However, Madani has consistently refuted the charge, saying that he had never in his life seen any estate in Coorg nor had he participated in any such camp. His lawyers argue that the Kerala Government is in the possession of the details of all his trips since he was under a three-guard protection of the Kerala Police at all times. But the Karnataka Police are not ready to trust the log of Madani’s travels with the Kerala Police.

Meanwhile, reports from Bangalore said that Madani’s name could move up in the list of accused in the blasts case from the 31st position to sixth of fifth. The evidences against Madani were so strong that Madani would have to move up in the list of accused.

Responses