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Loopholes in Madani chargesheet will trouble B'luru police

August 18, 2010 15:58 IST
The Bengaluru police have an uphill task when it commences the interrogation of high-profile blast accused, Abdul Nasar Madani. A crucial document in rediff.com's possession regarding the visits made by Madani highlights the contradictions in the chargesheet filed by the Bengaluru police.

The chargesheet against Madani states that just a couple of days prior to the Bengaluru blasts he had visited Madapur in Coorg district in Karnataka to confer with another arrested accused T Nasir.

Madani has been given B-grade security by the Kerala government and every movement of his was monitored. All the information about Madani's movements has to reported to the state home ministry on a regular basis. However this particular report handed over to the home ministry does not make any mention of Madani's visit to Madapur. The Bengaluru police will have a lot of explaining to do, since Madani's legal team is all set to seize this point while arguing his case.

Another point deals with the mobile phone which the police claimed belonged to Madani. The police said that Madani made calls from his phone to stay in touch with prime accused Nasir whereas the phone company claims the number is registered to Soofiya Madani.

The police have also alleged that Madani had circulated a book which allegedly contained jihadi literature. However this is not strong grounds for prosecution since the book in question has not been banned and has been on the market for the past ten years.

The Bengaluru police began interrogating Madani on Wednesday. A source in the investigating team said that this could probably be one of the toughest interrogations that they have conducted.

Madani is known for his oratory and will have been coached thoroughly by his legal team which will make it very difficult to gain information from him. The police will need to corroborate whatever little Madani reveals along with the version given by Nasir in order to build up a case, an Anti-Terrorist Cell official also said.

Vicky Nanjappa in Bengaluru