With the Congress party back in the saddle in Karnataka state, prospects of the release of Abdunnasar Madani, leader of the Kerala-based People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who is in jail for the past two years, has brightened.
Unlike the outgoing government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the new dispensation is expected to take a lenient stand by not opposing his bail application when it comes in the court for hearing next time. Though he had moved all available courts, including the Supreme Court of India, he could not secure bail as Karnataka insisted that it took more than two months for his arrest and it would be difficult for them to retrieve him once he’s back in Kerala.
The PDP and the rights groups supporting him say he was falsely implicated by the BJP government for political reasons. At least two key witnesses had gone on record that they were hoodwinked by the police into making false statements in Kannada which they did not understand. His case was expedited and the court acquitted him finally in 2008 in the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts allegedly targeting BJP leader LK Advani, after spending nearly a decade in Tamil Nadu prisons as an under-trial, after the change of guard in the state.
Kerala Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to ensure speedy trial or release of the cleric-turned-politician and the successive governments in Kerala prevailed upon the Congress-led government at the Centre and the state government led by one of its key allies, Dravida Munnetra Kazhakom (DMK), to secure his release.
Madani, a defendant in the 2008 Bangalore blasts, was in Kerala in March on a five-day parole to attend his daughter’s marriage which was attended by leaders of both the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
An acute diabetic, Madani had been staying at a private medical college hospital in Kollam under tight police security and he underwent health checkups and treatment there. Doctors attending him had confirmed that he had lost partial eyesight.
The ‘Khutba-e-Nikah’ (wedding speech, normally delivered by someone other than parents) he delivered at the venue kicked up a controversy as the 48-year-old leader criticized the Karnataka authorities for ‘denying’ him justice.