PDP leader Madani named as an accused in Bengaluru blasts

Controversial People's Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Madani has been named as an accused in the Bengaluru bomb blast case.

The charge-sheet in the case, filed by the Karnataka police recently, mentions six accused. Four of them are in custody and the other two, including Madani, have been declared 'absconding'.

The other accused mentioned in the charge-sheet include suspected terrorist T Nasir, Sarfraz Nawaz and Shafaz Shamsuddin.

Two people had been killed on July 25, 2008, when nine serial blasts had rocked the IT capital.

The Karnataka police will soon issue an arrest warrant against Madani, said sources, adding that though Madani was not questioned in connection to the case, his wife Sufiya was.

Madani's name was included in the charge-sheet after the police gathered crucial information about the blasts from Nasir and Nawaz, said sources. After the deposition of the two accused, the police drew up a supplementary charge-sheet mentioning Madani as an accused.

Nasir had earlier told the investigators that terror outfit Indian Mujahideen had experimented with low-intensity bombs in Bengaluru, which led to the serial blasts that killed 2 people.

Incidentally, Madani has spent eight years in prison as an accused in the 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blast case, in which 52 people were killed. Madani was later acquitted by the trial court.