By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Bengaluru: Marking a different opinion from the Karnataka Home Minister VS Acharya, the Bengaluru police today said that the role of PDP chief Abdunnasir Maudany in the blasts at the Chinnaswamy Stadium was not yet proven. City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidri, however, reportedly refused to comment on the remarks made by the Home Minister yesterday.
Mr Bidri told media persons that any involvement of Maudany in the Stadium blast was not yet proven. However, the police may seek an extension of his custody for interrogation purposes in the Bengaluru blast case. The police may also question Maudany’s wife Soofiya, he added.
Home Minister VS Acharya had yesterday told media persons that Maudany, who is in police custody in connection with the 2008 Bengaluru blasts, had confessed during his interrogation that he had prior information about the blasts at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Two low-intensity bombs had went off at the Bengaluru Stadium minutes before an IPL match between Bengaluru Royal Challengers and Mumbai Indians on April 17, 2010. The city police and the BJP government in the state had ruled any terror links for the blast and said that it was carried out by the betting lobby and the underworld. The blasts were said to be a means to change the venue of the match to the home ground of the Mumbai Indians. However, the particular match was played there itself after the delay of an hour, though the rest of the matches were moved out of the city. But yesterday, the Home Minister made new claims including Maudany’s name, refuting his own earlier statements on the matter.
The Home Minister’s statement was refuted by Maudany’s lawyer yesterday itself. Adv Akbar Ali who met Maudany in the jail said that Maudnay had made it clear he had made no such confession and that the police had interrogated him only about the Bengaluru blasts. Maudany reportedly said that the minister was lying just as the police and media had lied that he was recognized by witnesses at Kodagu while no such witnesses had seen him when the police took him to the place. He had not even got down from the police vehicle when taken to Kodagu, where Maudany is accused to have attended a camp organized by prime accused T Naseer for hatching the conspiracy of the blast.
The statement of the Karnataka Home Minister came just days before the police custody of Maudany is going to end. The Minister had also hinted that the police may seek for an extension of his custody. However, the police are yet to submit their report based on the interrogation in the court on Thursday when the police custody ends. The statement of the minister regarding the police interrogation even before the submission of the police report has led to strengthening of doubts that the case against Maudany was fabricated under the special interest of the BJP government in Karnataka.
Abdunnasir Maudany, chairman of Kerala’s People’s Democratic Party, was arrested by the Karnataka police from Kerala on August 17 in connection with the 2008 Bengaluru blasts which had killed one person and injured around 20 others. Maudany was named 31st accused in the chargesheet filed by the police, which alleged him of taking part in the conspiracy held at Kodagu organized by the prime accused T Naseer. Maudany had, however, maintained he was innocent of the charges against him, but at the same time reiterated he was ready to abide by the decision of the law-courts. He was earlier accused in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts and was in jail for nearly 10 years till he was released finding innocent in August 2007.