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Chennai bomb planting case verdict on January 24

By K. Subramanian

KANCHEEPURAM JAN. 20 . The verdict in the case against the Al-Umma founder leader, S.A. Basha, and 23 others for planning to disrupt normal life in Tamil Nadu by planting bombs in and around Chennai city will be pronounced at 3 p.m. on January 24, L. Rajendran, judge of the special court at Poonamalle, this afternoon said.

He would require more time for preparing the judgment.

Heavy armed police guards were posted on the campus as he had stated on January 6 that the verdict would be delivered today.

All the accused including Basha, Sarfudeen, Amanullah and two women, Arifa Begum and Ayesha alias Sangeetha, were brought to the court from the Coimbatore, Chennai and Vellore prisons with police escort.

Amanullah creates flutter

Later, after boarding a police van, Amanullah shouted and drew the attention of mediapersons stating prison authorities in Coimbatore were violating human rights. Basha also said all Al-Umma accused lodged in the central prison were being ill-treated, after they had complained to the Coimbatore district judge, Thanikachalam, last Saturday about the treatment meted out to them.

The accused in the Chennai bomb planting case were arrested in February and March 1998 for keeping explosives, revolvers, electronic and ordinary detonators and gelatin sticks at Kodambakkam, Vepery, Tambaram and Poonamalle with intent to plant bombs at government buildings and organisations immediately after the February 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts.

The trial began in June 2001 and in all 89 witnesses, including the Chennai Collector and the Police Commissioner, were examined. Nineteen charges were framed against the accused and 85 objects and 120 documents were produced as evidence.

Xavier Felix, counsel for the accused, however, said not even a single witness had brought out the motive of the accused to commit a dastardly act. But P. Krishnaswamy, special public prosecutor, said the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.

Another case

Earlier, Mr. Rajendran took up one more bomb planting case committed by the 14th metropolitan court at Egmore on December 23, 2002, and judge posted it for January 30.

According to the prosecution, 24 persons including some Al-Umma activists were accused of planting bombs in the offices of the IG of Prisons and the Commissioner of Police and also in a hotel in Chennai city; Tiruchi, Coimbatore, and at Payargode and Kasargode in Kerala in 1999.

Out of the 24 accused, two were absconding and five turned approvers. The charge sheets were filed in October 2000 and most of the accused were produced in the court amidst tight security.

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