Abdul Nasser Madani
On Wednesday, a session court Judge K Uthirapathi found the chief accused S A Basha as the guilty of conspiracy and transporting explosives in the connection with Coimbatore blast case with 72 others. At the same time, the court acquitted the prime accused Abdul Nasser Mahdhani, the Chairman of Kerala-based PDP in the case by stating that evidences against Madani were not sufficient to convict him in the case.

Basha’s brother and his son also accused in the Coimbatore case. Mohommad Ansari, who was Basha’s deputy in the organization, was also the prime accused in the blast case.
Among the 166 accused in the blasts special judge K Uthirapathy acquitted eight, all from Kerala, including Abdul Nazar Madani. All the acquitted were from Kerala. According to the report, the court would pronounce sentences from August 16 onwards.

Abdul Nasser Madani, the prime accused in South India’s biggest terror attack, was once branded as a militant. Now, the court has acquitted him and he has been come out of jail after nine years. He has the plan to join active politics again. The news of his acquittal sent major relief for the ruling LDF and the Opposition UDF in Kerala because both the parties had had been openly supporting him for years.

On February 14, 1998, 12 blasts had despoiled Coimbatore just before Advani’s planned visit in the city. The bombs went off at 12 places across the city including the site for Advani’s rally and killed 58 people. More than 200 people were injured in the blasts. Advani was saved because his flight from Thiruvananthapuram was delayed by three hours at that day from scheduled time.

Later, the investigating agencies blamed the al-Umma and the Jehad committee for carrying out these attacks in the city. Till 2002, some 166 people faced trial including SA Basha and Abdul Nazar Mahdhani. The trial in the blast case started in March 2002 and the arguments started in June 2006. The case completed on April 10 2006 after examining more than 1,300 witnesses.

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