By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : A team from the newly-formed anti-terror squad (ATS) in Kerala arrived at People’s Democratic Party (PDP) supremo Abdul Nazir Maudany’s house in Kochi to record his statement, but the meet lasted several hours.
The team led by ATS chief, Deputy Inspector General of Police T.K. Vinod Kumar, arrived at 9.30 a.m at the residence of Maudany, who was acquitted of his alleged involvement in serial bomb blasts in Coimbatore in 1996. The team was there till late evening.
But Kerala Police’s intelligence wing chief Siby Mathew said the visit was nothing more than taking a statement from Maudany.
“Nothing more needs to be read into it. And is there anything wrong if a statement is taken from Maudany? This is routine work that the police does,” Mathew told IANS.
The visit, however, assumes significance after the Karnataka Police held Abdul Sathar, a prime accused in last year’s bomb blast at Bangalore. According to the police, Sathar is said to have close links with Maudany.
Since his acquittal in 2007 in the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blast case, Maudany has been a strong supporter of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). Maudany’s close association with the CPI-M in the election campaign had raised some eyebrows within the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).