The Supreme Court on Wednesday referred to another bench the bail plea of Kerala-based People's Democratic Party president Abdul Nazir Maudany, now in jail for his alleged involvement in the 2008 serial explosions in Bengaluru.
An apex court bench of justice Markandey Katju and justice Gyansudha Misra said the matter may be placed before chief justice S.H. Kapadia so that it could be listed before another bench. The court referred the matter to another bench, following strong divergence of views between the two judges on the question of granting bail.
Justice Katju said there was no sufficient evidence to deny bail to Maudany. He said Maudany had made inflammatory speeches, which he should not have done in a secular country, but that alone is not sufficient to implicate him in the conspiracy of the Bengaluru bomb blast case. He said that the fact that Maudany was in telephonic contact with other accused before and after the blast was not an evidence to show him as the kingpin of the blast conspiracy.
On the other hand, justice Misra said that there was sufficient evidence pointing to the involvement of Maudany in the bomb blast and he was being implicated not just on the basis of the inflammatory speeches he made but his constant contact with the other accused. If Maudany has to be granted bail, then the entire criminal procedure court should be changed to say that an accused should not be arrested till he is convicted, she said. Eight low-intensity explosions within a span of 30 minutes killed one woman and injured 15 persons in July 2008.