The Kerala Police has registered a case against Islamist leader Abdul Nasser Madani, currently under detention at a Karnataka prison as 31st accused in the 2008 Bangalore bomb blasts case, for the alleged attempt back in 1998 to murder RSS ideologue P Parameswaran and Father KK Alavi, a convert into Christianity from Islam.
The case had been registered at the Ernakulam North Police Station in Kochi as per a court directive but officials refused to confirm or deny the development reportedly because of the political significance of the matter. The police have slapped the charges of attempt to murder and issuance of threat to murder on Madani.
The Islamist leader has been named as first accused in the case while one Ashraf hailing from Marad in Kozhikode district and an activist of the PDP of which Madani is chairman, has been made the second accused. As per the case, Madani had sent Ashraf as hitman after giving him money to kill Parameswaran, director of RSS think-tank Bharateeya Vichara Kendram.
The alleged attempt of Madani to murder Parameswaran had reportedly come to light through a statement given by one Muhammad whom the Town Police in Kozhikode had interrogated in connection with an extremism-oriented case. According to Muhammad, Madani had given money to Ashraf for murdering Parameswaran and Alavi.
Muhammad is said to have told the police that Ashraf had travelled to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu in 1998 to murder Parameswaran but the attempt met with failure somehow. Though the Town Police in Kozhikode had recorded the statement of Muhammad, no investigation had so far
been made on the basis of
the disclosure.
The road to the investigation was cleared after a petition was filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Kochi seeking a probe on the basis of Muhammad’s serious disclosure. The directive for probe was given by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Kochi to where the petition was transferred by the CJM Court.
Though the case had been registered by the Ernakulam North Police, the officials have so far kept the matter a secret. Muhammad had been arrested earlier by the Kozhikode police as an accused in the Coimbatore blasts case and reports said that he had confirmed the disclosures of Muhammad to the police.
The Ernakulam North Police would have to question Madani if they came across any evidence that could establish the crime prima facie. But the fact that Madani is presently lodged at the Parappana Agrahara prison outside Bangalore as an accused in the 2008 bombings case could pose some difficulties for his.
It is said that the case could be transferred to Kozhikode from Ernakulam North Police Station considering the fact that the disclosure had originated there. The State Police Headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram has instructed the Ernakulam police to tread cautiously because of the political significance of the case.
legal experts, meanwhile, said the development could prove to be a setback for the efforts of pro-Madani outfits and individuals in Kerala and the State’s political parties to secure his release on bail from the prison. Parties belonging to the two main fronts in Kerala and the State Government itself have been trying to get Madani released on bail citing medical reasons.
The attempt-to-murder case has been registered against Madani, arrested by the Karnataka Police on August 17, 2010 for his alleged role in the Bangalore bombings, just when the Karnataka Prosecution, under the new Congress Government has taken a tough position against his bail plea saying that he has been involved in dozens of cases in other States as well.