"We would ensure that he gets a fair trial and he would come clean if he had no involvement in any sort of terrorist activities," junior home minister Mullappally Ramachandran told reporters here. "It is better that a hundred offenders shall escape than that one innocent man be condemned.”
Ma'dani had spent nearly a decade in jail in Tamil Nadu as an under-trial after he was arraigned as a conspirator behind the 1998 Coimbatore blasts that killed 58 people before the arrival of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani in the bordering city.
Ma'dani has alleged that the state government ruled by a BJP ally then imprisoned him at the instance of the Hindutva forces without bail till his acquittal in August 2007 and another BJP-ruled state was plotting to frame him in the 2008 Bangalore blasts with the same intentions.
"We would monitor his arrest and interrogation by the Bangalore police and would take strong action against misuse of power or if he was being harassed by his interrogators," Ramachandran said. "He need not fear if he had not aided or abetted the terror strikes.”
One civilian was dead and five injured when low-intensity explosives were detonated in eight places in Bangalore, India's software hub. Most of the people accused in the case were once members of Ma'dani's People's Democratic Party (PDP) and said to be his close associates.
Ma'dani was also charged by the police in Kerala with making provocative speeches after the 2002 demolition of a 16th century mosque in north India and he lost his right leg in an attempt on his life. Since his release, he has denounced violence and pardoned his assailants.
However, the Karnakata police say he continued to maintain close contacts with the key persons behind the blasts, including its mastermind T. Naseer, the alleged south Indian commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba who is also facing several terror-related charges including recruitment of mercenaries four of whom died in a "shootout" with the security forces in Kashmir.
The trial court in Bangalore had last week issued an arrest warrant against Ma'dani and his arrest is expected anytime now. Muslim groups such as Popular Front of India (PFI) have come out in his defense alleging conspiracy by the BJP government while Ma'dani said India's internal intelligence agency Intelligence Bureau (IB) was the main conspirator.
Ramachandran refuted the allegation saying allegations against the IB were baseless and ill-founded. "IB is a reputed agency run by highly professional officers. It has no business to frame unfounded charges against anybody," he said.
He alleged that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has "influence in some areas and organizations" in Kerala and it was "evident that they were out to disrupt normal life here.”
"If you ask me, yes we have received strong evidences to prove their active presence and influence in some areas and organizations in Kerala. But I cannot disclose those details to you," he said. "Some of the organizations are under our scanner.”
Meanwhile, PDP workers who arrived from different parts of the state continued protest demonstrations at the Anvarussery headquarters of Ma'dani vowing to prevent his arrest. Workers of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also joined the marchers, mostly women and children.
A section of the Muslim organizations, including those of the clerics, also announced a dawn-to-dusk sit-in before the State Secretariat on Monday, which would be inaugurated by columnist and rights activist BRP Bhaskar.
