Pressure grows for Bengaluru blast accused's release

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Kerala is mounting pressure on the government to expedite the trial in cases against the party president Abdul Nasser Madani, who is an accused in the 2008 Bengaluru blast case, and ensure justice to him.

Apart from holding series of demonstration in Kerala over the last one month with participation of eminent personalities from various fields, a delegation of representatives of prominent Islamic religious and educational organisations called on Kerala Governor Arif Muhammad Khan and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and urged that steps may be taken to expedite trial in the case against Madani, who was held in the Bengaluru blast case in 2010.

PDP leaders said that though the Karnataka government submitted before the Supreme Court in 2014 that trial of the cases would be completed in four months, even after five years the trial was progressing at snails pace.

Many noted personalities, including famous poet K Sachidanandan, who participated in the demonstrations organised over the last one month, condemned that the detention of Madani for years pending trial amounted to a denial of basic rights.

Madani was jailed for nine years till 2007 in connection with Coimbatore blast case and was later acquitted. He was held by the Bengaluru police in 2010 August in connection with 2008 Bengaluru blast case. Though he was granted bail owing to health issues, he could not go out of Bengaluru.