Court nod for Ma’dani to visit ailing mum in Kerala

By Ashraf Padanna/ThiruvananthapuramThe Supreme Court yesterday allowed Kerala politician Abdul Nasar Ma’dani, now under house arrest in Bengaluru, to visit his ailing mother here.Leader of the pro-Left People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Ma’dani was arrested from his residence in Kollam in 2010 by the Karnataka police who alleged he had ordered the 2008 Bengaluru blasts in which a woman was killed.The apex court granted Ma’dani conditional bail in July last year and he has since been staying in a Bangalore house under police watch. Ma’dani has been sanctioned a five-day stay in Kerala. He is expected to reach here today. The court also allowed the Karnataka police to take “necessary precautions” while Ma’dani was in Kerala.“It’s a huge relief that the court has allowed him to go home and stay there for five days,” his lawyer Haris Beeran said.The cleric-turned-politician has had to spend nine years and 10 months in a Tamil Nadu jail - without bail or parole - until he was acquitted of ordering the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts that killed 58 people ahead of BJP leader L K Advani’s visit.A series of nine bombs were detonated across various locations in Bengaluru in July 2008. Key “witnesses” - whose accounts the police cited to try Ma’dani - had later denied giving any statement implicating him.The police claim Lashkar-e-Toiba suspect T Naseer, who is also in prison, had confessed that he planted the bombs in the city on July 25, 2008, on orders from Ma’dani. He faces charges of treason, terrorism and attempt to murder.The court also expressed displeasure over the long delay in completing the trial. The trial court maintains that it would take two more years to complete the process.The 50-year-old, who lost his right leg in a 1992 murder attempt by alleged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists, whom he pardoned later, has been undergoing treatment at the Soukya Holistic Centre in Bengaluru.Doctors say Ma’dani long confinement in prison has worsened his health beyond recovery.The Karnataka police arrested the wheelchair-bound leader on August 17, 2010, when the BJP was in power there and the imprisonment continued even after the Congress party came to power.Ma’dani insists that he is a victim of political conspiracy. The prosecution lawyers had claimed in the apex court that it would be difficult for them to get Ma’dani back to Karanataka and expedite trial of the other 30 defendants as well if he was allowed to leave the city.