1998 Coimbatore Serial Blasts verdict today

Coimbatore, Aug 1: The Special Court for Bomb Blast Cases will start pronouncing its verdict in the 1998 Coimbatore Serial Blasts Case today.

Special Court Judge K Uthirapathy has ordered earlier that the 167 accused to be present in the court today when he will deliver the verdict.

On February 14,1998, a series of explosions in this city left 58 people dead and 250 injured minutes before BJP Leader L K Advani was to address an election meeting for the Lok Sabha polls.

The bomb blasts were a sequel to communal riots which rocked the textile city in November-December 1997 in the wake of killing of traffic constable Selvaraj on November 29, 1997 by suspected Al-umma cadre.

The blasts were planned and executed by suspected Al-umma cadre under the leadership of S A Basha.

According to the special investigation team (SIT) of CB-CID, Selvaraj's murder triggered communal clashes following which Basha, his lieutenants Mohammed Ansari, Tajudeen and Kerala-based People's Democratic Party (PDP) Leader Abdul Nazar Madhani hatched a plan to wreak vengence on the perpetrators.

Accordingly, they chose February 14 to execute their plan coinciding with Mr Advani's visit in connection with the election campaign. As much as 850 kg of gelatine and about 3,000 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were procured from Indian Explosives Corporation of Mysore owned by Riaz-Ur-Rahman and managed by Mohammed Dasthagir.

The explosives were transported to Sathyamangalam by buses and brought to the city by cars and stored in various places.

Similarly PEK and TNT slabs were procured in Kerala by Army Raju with Madhani's help. Also, country revolvers and ammunition were also procured.

Basith alias Mohammed Basith was the brain behind making various types of explosives which were set off at 19 different places in the city.

Of the 181 accused, seven were killed in the blasts, five of them were absconding. One of the accused, Mohammed Dasthagir, died during the trial while Riaz turned an approver.

The chargesheet was filed in Judicial Magistrate Court V and copies furnished to the accused on March 27,2000. The case was transferred to the special court on May 24, 2000.

The trial commenced on March seven, 2002 and the cross examination of witnesses completed on January 21, 2006.

The prosecution laid a 17,000-page charge sheet and marked 1,731 material exhibits and 480 material objects. The defence marked five witnesses and 106 defence exhibits. There were two court witnesses.

The prosecution marked 2,345 witnesses and 1,300 of them were examined.

OneIndia News

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