Coimbatore Blasts: Madras High Court Grants 3 Months Interim Bail To Al-Ummah Leader SA Basha For Treatment

The bench of Justice SS Sundar and Justice Sunder Mohan decided to grant him interim bail for a period of 3 months after noting that he is bedridden and undergoing treatment in the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital. The court thus granted bail on the execution of a personal bond of Rs. 25,000 to the satisfaction of the Trial Court.

Considering that Basha was taking treatment for his illness, the court also deemed it fit to dispense his reporting before the local police station. The court however directed the State authorities to submit a report regarding his conduct before the expiry of the three-month period and asked Basha not to leave the State of Tamil Nadu without informing the local police station in writing.

“Since the Prison inmate is taking treatment for his illness, the reporting of the detenu before the Local Police Station is dispensed with for the present. The State authorities shall submit a report with regard to the conduct of the prison inmate before expiry of the period of three months. Prison inmate will not leave the State of Tamil Nadu without informing the local Police Station in writing at least three days in advance and shall keep them posted about his whereabouts,” the court said.

Brief background

Basha was the mastermind and one among the 13 persons convicted to life sentence for hatching a criminal conspiracy to trigger a series of explosions on February 14, 1998.

The first of the serial bombs on February 14 exploded at 3.50 p.m. on Shanmugham Road in R.S. Puram, barely 100 metres from the venue of an election meeting that was to be addressed by the then Bharatiya Janata Party president L.K. Advani. Over the next 40 minutes, blasts were reported on West Sambandam Road, Gani Rowther Street at Ukkadam, at a textile showroom on Big Bazaar Street, a shopping complex near the main bus stand at Gandhipuram, the vehicle parking lot at the Coimbatore Junction railway station, the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), a travel agency (owned by a local BJP leader) on V.K.K. Menon Road, a jewellery shop on Oppanakara Street, a BJP election office at Ratnapuri near Sivananda Colony and a temple at Kurichikulam.

Of the 166 accused in the case, the trial court in August 2007 pronounced 69 persons guilty of different offences. In December 2009, the Madras high court upheld the convictions of 18 people, 17 life terms and one 13-year term in the blast case. The bench acquitted 22 people of all charges for want of sufficient evidence. Most of the life term convicts approached the Supreme Court in appeal.

Recently, the Supreme Court had outrightly denied bail to some of the life convicts in the case. The court had remarked that though the convicts were in jail for almost 25 years, 58 people had lost their lives in the attack and that itself was a good enough reason to deny bail.

Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr.S.Manoharan

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr.E.Raj Thilak Additional Public Prosecutor assisted by Mr.C.Aravind

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 324

Case Title: B Mubeena v The State and Others

Case No: WMP.No.30083/2023 in WP.No.30464/2023