Author: Ananthakrishnan G
Publication: The Times of India
Date: March 16, 2009
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/For-support-is-CPM-going-easy-on-Madani-family/articleshow/4265781.cms
Introduction: Left Keen On PDP Chief's Support
In Elections
Bonhomie between CPM and People's Democratic
Party chief Abdul Nasser Madani, acquitted in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts case,
in Kerala may not have come without a price.
Investigations into some recent acts of terror
reportedly point to the radical Muslim cleric-turned-politician's family.
One of these relates to the 2005 bus burning case at Aluva near Kochi. A key
witness in the case, Yousuf, had testified that the planning was done at the
house of Madani's wife Sufiya at Eranakulam, sources said.
Yousuf's statement recorded before a magistrate
is part of the chargesheet filed recently by the police. But, she does not
figure in the list of the accused. Five men armed with pistols and other weapons
had hijacked a Tamil Nadu State Road Transport Corporation bus soon after
it left Kochi on September 9, 2005. They forced the driver to take it to an
isolated spot. Later they set the bus on fire after forcing out the passengers.
They were also shouting slogans in favour of Madani and against the Tamil
Nadu government.
Police claimed they were angry over TN government's
decision to oppose the bail plea of Madani, who was then lodged in the Coimbatore
jail in connection with the 1998 blasts case.
Majeed Parambayi, an accused in the case,
has also spilled the beans on Sufiya's alleged role in the case. The woman,
he said, had called him to say that Madani was beaten up in the jail and that
it was to be avenged. He also confessed to having distributed the money given
by her to the accused after the crime.
One of the accused in the case was Abdul Rahim,
who along with three other youth from Kerala was killed by security forces
in Kashmir in October 2008 while they were on their way to PoK. Sleuths are
reportedly in possession of telephone call records between Rahim and Sufiya.
PDP leader Poonthura Siraj, meanwhile, said
that the party did not take the chargesheet seriously. "It's election
time and people will say all kinds of things," he said.
