Madani under jail threat, again

Bangalore blasts

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chairman Abdul Nasar Madani’s days of freedom, allegedly procured after many a political gamble, seems numbered. If the Bangalore City police claims of him being involved in the 2008 serial bomb blasts here are proved true, then he could soon be behind bars.

Madani’s name figures first in the additional chargesheet against six suspects of the blasts that the city police filed on Friday in the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court. The police had recorded the statement of Madani’s wife, Sufiya, but they were yet to question him.

“It is for the court to decide about Madani. We have carried out a detailed investigation, collected the evidence and submitted the chargesheets,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Alok Kumar, here on Saturday.

Others named in the chargesheet include Shohib alias Faizal of Paapinchari in Kerala, Sarfuddin from Kuruva of Kannur, Thajuddin from Ernakulam, Abdul Khadar from Kodagu and P B Saabeer from Ernakulam. The additional chargesheet also provides extra evidence against Tadiyantavide Nasir and Safaz, who were arrested on December 3, 2009. Four out of the six chargesheeted are in judicial custody.

With this, the city police so far have filed chargesheets against 32 persons. The first chargesheet was filed on May 19, 2009, against 26 people.  In response to the Bangalore police’s claim of his role in the serial blasts, Madani has said he will fight his reported inclusion legally. “I have nothing to do with this Bangalore case. It’s a frame-up at the instance of the Intelligence Bureau, Karnataka police and other interests,’’ he said.

After the news of his impending arrest came last week, Madani’s supporters have weaved a human fortress around the orphanage at Anwarsseri in Kollam, where he lives. Anwarsseri is Madani’s birthplace where he built an orphanage, a madrassa and an Arabic school.

Oommen Chandy, opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly, has said it was the ruling LDF that forged a political understanding with the PDP and not his UDF. People had seen CPM Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan sharing dais with Madani and state Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan welcoming him after his release from Coimbatore Central jail.