The Coimbatore serial bomb blast case was the first to be tried under the normal penal laws of the land though it closely followed the Mumbai blasts of March 1993. The blasts, set off in 19 places in Coimbatore on Feb 14, 1998, including the election meeting venue of BJP leader L K Advani left 58 dead and over 250 injured. It was a classic act of terrorism. The aim was to avenge the death of 17 Muslims in the communal riots that followed the brutal murder of a traffic constable by Al Umma activists in November 2007 and to kill Mr Advani as Hindu outfits played a major role in the riots. By coincidence, the incidents happened after the lapse of TADA and before the enactment of POTA. In answer to advocates of tough anti-terror laws, the investigators have proved that the perpetrators of such heinous crime can be punished even under the normal laws of the land like the IPC, the Explosive Substances Act and the Arms Act. Proof is the rate of conviction-- 153 of the 166 accused, including banned Al Umma founder S A Basha, his son Siddiq Ali and nephew Mohammed Ansari, have been found guilty on various counts like criminal conspiracy, promoting communal hatred and destroying evidence.
The acquittal of Kerala’s People’s Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Madhani and seven others only enhances the credibility of the justice delivery system.Verdict on five more accused has been deferred for now.  The case has disproved the theory that only in-camera hearings in terrorist cases ensure witness protection: Over 1,000 prosecution witnesses were examined.The delay of nine years for the case to come to fruition is pardonable, given the time taken by the Mumbai TADA court to deliver judgment in the cases concerning the serial bomb blasts.
Unlike the Mumbai blasts and subsequent acts of terrorism during and after the repeal of POTA, there was no external dimension to the Coimbatore case —be it of Dawood Ibrahim, or ISI-trained Kashmiri militants. It was an act carried out by a southern network of Islamist fundamentalists with explosives coming from Mysore through Tiruchur and Kozhikode to Coimbatore. Once sentencing is complete, many of the convicts may be set free as they have already spent nine years in jail as under-trials. Others have right of appeal. On the whole, justice has not only been done, but has been seen to be done.