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Madras HC rejects plea in RSS bomb blast case

The Madras high court has dismissed a petition filed by an accused in the RSS bomb blast case challenging the Tamil Nadu government notification transferring and posting Tamilvanan as judge of designated TADA court-II, which is trying the case.

Justice K Govindarajan refused to accept the submission of the petitioner, Mohamed Ali, who is the son-in-law of Al Umma leader S A Basha, also an accused, that a person appointed as a judge of the designated court could not be transferred.

The judge ruled that the state government could appoint a judge to the designated court with the concurrence of the chief justice of the high court.

The petitioner contended that the case was registered in 1994 and during the relevant time, only the designated court-I had the power to take cognisance of the case. Subsequently, through a notification, the designated court-II was given jurisdiction to try this case also.

The judge said the petitioner could not raise such a plea at this stage as he and the other accused had participated in the proceedings before the designated court-II and witnesses examined.

Basha and 17 others were arrested in connection with the bomb blast at the RSS headquarters in Madras on August 8, 1993. The CBI, which is probing the case, had filed the chargesheet in 1994. The trial in this case commenced in 1997 and so far, 90 witnesses were examined. Of the 18 accused, Rafiq Ahmed, Sababuddin, Aslam and Mukhtar Ahmed were granted bail.

UNI

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