By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kochi: ‘Why are they telling disgusting lies about me?’ asks Soofiya Madani, wife of Abdunnasir Madani and 10th accused in the controversial Kalamassery bus-burning case. Even though Madani and Soofiya have made it clear that they would abide by the laws even if she was to be arrested, both are praying she wouldn’t have the plight of Madani. Madani was in Coimbatore jail for nearly 10 years since 1998 and was released findin ginocent of the charges against him. He was accused of having a role in the Coimbatore blasts of 1998.
‘Why did a Congress leader insult me in the name of the purdah I have been using for a long time? Why did he accuse me linking with all the terrorists of Kerala? Why is a senior Congress leader talking against me in the words of RSS men?’ Soofiya is raising several questions which she finds hard to get answer for. ‘Why me who has always followed the tenets of Islam, offering prayers five times a day, reciting the Qur’an and fasting?’
Soofiya remembers that he was not allowed even to change dress or to take medicines when Madani was arrested on the night of March 31, 1998. She recalls that thousands of people had phoned her to express solidarity and to console when Madani was in jail. It was one of those calls that linked her to the Kalamassery bus-burning case, according to Soofiya. However, she says that the support of Madani who knows her innocence is a great strength. Still, she is afraid she too might be pushed into the ordeal that Madani had to undergo.
Madani said on Monday that he would fight strongly against any move to take his wife out of the state. ‘Nobody will prevent it if the court orders the arrest of Soofiya, but if there is a move to take her to any other state, I can’t say now what will be the consequences,’ Madani is reported to have said. Madani recalled that he was arrested in Kerala for an alleged hate speech and was taken to Coimbatore where he was imprisoned for long 10 years. He said that Soofiya was not among the accused when the police first submitted the chargesheet of the Kalamassery bus-burning case in the court. She was questioned for more than four hours from Kochi as part of the case but then also she was not in the list of accused. There is a conspiracy for listing her now in the case.
He added that naming accused just because somebody had phoned him or his wife was unjustifiable. It should be a matter of serious thought as to how the Pakisthan-based Lashkar e Toiba had roots in Kerala. There must be a big network behind it and it should be found out, he added.