A four-member special police team, which has gone to Kollam in Kerala to arrest Madani is awaiting signals from the Kerala police, Home Minister Dr V S Acharya said. Speaking to mediapersons here, he said the Kerala police have sought four days time to arrest Madani.
Punnoose said that certain formalities remained to be completed for the arrest to be made. “No senior police official or minister has contacted the police or the government in this regard,’’ he said indicating that production of a warrant was not just enough to carry out what is expected to be a high-profile arrest.
Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan also claimed that there was a procedural lapse on the part of the Karnataka government in not taking the Kerala government into confidence.
“A circle inspector and two policemen handed over a letter to the Kochi city police commissioner for making the arrest. That was when we officially came to know that Madani is an accused in the case. Till then, whatever we came to know on the case was only through the media,’’ Balakrishnan said here.
There is also a bit of history which apparently seems to be advising the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government to exercise caution while cooperating with the Karnataka police.
In 1998, Madani was arrested and handed over to the Tamil Nadu police in the Coimbatore blasts case during the term of the LDF government led by E K Nayanar. This remained a political issue for long and gave a stick to the United Democratic Front to beat the former at will.
Later, Madani was set free for want of evidence after he had served nine years in prison. The Achuthanandan government certainly doesn’t want to show much enthusiasm in pandering to the wishes of the BSY government in the matter.
Insufficient force
Both Balakrishnan and the DGP also revealed that the state was hardpressed at the moment to spare enough police personnel to face any possible unrest in the wake of the arrest. This was because of President Pratibha Patil’s visit, Independence Day function and the freedom parade being organised by Popular Front of India.
The beginning of Ramzan fasting also seem to have put the government in two minds. Madani has been running fever since Wednesday and doctors examining him have despatched his throat swab to test for H1N1.
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