Trial in eight terror cases, including the bid to blow up the convoy of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani near Madurai in 2011, will gain pace with the Madras High Court recently upholding the creation of a special court for the purpose.
The State government had issued an order creating a special court in Poonamallee to conduct trial in terror cases based on a proposal sent by the Special Investigation Division of the Crime Branch CID. However, a single judge of the Madras High Court had set aside the order. The investigation agency challenged the verdict and a Division Bench of the court has since set aside the order, CB-CID sources said on Wednesday.
The cases include murders of BJP and Hindu Munnani functionaries in Tamil Nadu in the last few years and seizure of a huge quantity of explosive materials from a locked house at Melappalayam in Tirunelveli district. Fakruddin alias ‘Police’ Fakruddin, Panna Ismail and Bilal Malik, considered cadres of the banned Al Umma, were arrested in these cases.
The trio was allegedly involved in at least four communal murders, including that of BJP functionaries V. Arvinth Reddy in Vellore on October 23, 2012, ‘Auditor’ V. Ramesh in Salem July 19, 2013 and Hindu Munnani State secretary S. Vellaiyappan in Vellore on July 1, 2013.
The accused also allegedly played a role in planting a pipe bomb under a culvert near Madurai on October 2011 in an attempt to blow up the convoy of Mr. Advani.
Fakruddin and his associates were arrested by the SID from their hideout in Puttur, Andhra Pradesh, on October 5, 2013. Samples of explosive substances seized from Puttur, Melappalayam, Tirumangalam and Bengaluru blast were found to be similar by experts. The SID filed the chargesheet in all eight cases but the trial could not proceed after the High Court had stayed the forming of the Special Court.
The accused lodged in Vellore Central Prison were transferred to the Puzhal prison here so that they could be taken to the Poonamallee special court for trial and brought back to the prison the same day. However, Fakruddin, Ismail and Malik were shifted to different prisons in the State after they allegedly attacked jail warders and held two more as hostages in the high-security block following an altercation over food brought by some visitors recently.
Trial in the cases was expected to commence later this month.
The cases include murders of BJP and Hindu Munnani functionaries in Tamil Nadu and seizure of explosive materials from a locked house at Melappalayam
