PDP chief Maudany arrested, brought to Bangalore (Night Lead)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/BANGALORE - People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Abdul Nazir Maudany was arrested Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the 2008 Bangalore bombings. He was brought to the Karnataka capital late in the night and taken before a magistrate for custody.

“We have just flown Maudany from Thiruvananthapuram by a scheduled flight. He will be produced before the first additional chief metropolitan magistrate for police or judicial custody after completing the formalities,” Bangalore’s Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Alok Kumar told IANS.

As a non-bailable arrest warrant (NBW) was issued to bring the the PDP chief in the court by Tuesday, the police team escorting Maudany from Kerala has decided to take him at the residence of the magistrate Venkatesh Halagi in upscale Koramangala before midnight.

“We have some paper work to do before taking Maudany to the magistrate’s house for custody. It is for the magistrate to decide whether the nature of custody. If he is given judicial custody, he will be put in the central jail,” Kumar said.

As Maudany was being taken to Bangalore, he asserted his innocence and appealed to his followers to maintain peace.

“I make a strong appeal to my supporters that they should behave themselves and not to see this as a Hindu-Muslim issue,” said Maudany before being taken inside the Thiruvanathapuram airport.

A group of 20 PDP supporters were arrested at Kerala’s Karungapally for stoning vehicles in protest against the arrest.

PDP vice chairman Poonthura Siraj told reporters at the airport that they have not called any shut down in the state Wednesday but would observe a “black day”.

“We will be observing tomorrow (Wednesday) as a black day because Maudany was denied his fundamental rights,” he said.

Ending eight days of suspense, the PDP chief was arrested by a posse of Karnataka and Kerala police as he stepped into a van to proceed to the court to surrender amid emotional scenes at the orphanage run by him as a large number of children wept and kissed him goodbye.

Earlier, Maudany called a press conference at his residence-cum-party headquarters at Anwarassery near Kollam, 90 km from Thiruvananthapuram, which also houses a mosque and the orphanage, and announced that he would surrender before a court after finishing his noon prayers.

Coming out of the mosque in his wheel chair after prayers, Maundany was lifted and put inside the vehicle with his wife and two sons and some party office bearers accompanying him.

The van had just begun to move when a large contingent of Kerala police officials led by Kollam Superintendent of Police Harshita Ataloori surrounded it. Karnataka police official Omkarayyah got into the vehicle and told Maudany that he has been arrested and they have a warrant from a court in Bangalore.

The police asked all except Maudany’s wife and sons to alight from the vehicle.

A police driver took charge of the wheel, while a woman police official also got into the vehicle besides a few other police officials and was taken to the airport.

Large crowds had gathered on the roads to see Maudany and were seen waving to him.

At Kottarakara, following a suspected problem in the brakes of the vehicle that he was travelling in, he was shifted to another vehicle belonging to a top police official.

About 50 PDP supporters had gathered outside the Thiruvananthapuram airport and shouting slogans in his favour.

Before entering the terminal of the airport which police had cordoned off, Maudany was seen speaking to his wife, Sufiya.

Denying his involvement in the July 25, 2008 bombing in which one person was killed and 15 were injured, Maudany told reporters that it was a “conspiracy hatched politically” and reiterated that he was innocent.

“I don’t think I will return from Karnataka. You now wait and see. Once I am there in Karnataka, you should not be surprised if my name features in a case in Gujarat or even the Mumbai bomb blasts and even in the World Trade Centre blast,” he said.

He also thanked the state government for showing “mature behaviour by not barging into the orphanage” he has set up in his residence.

Meanwhile, Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters at Kozhikode that the Karnataka director general of police had called up his Kerala counterpart and thanked him.

Karnataka Home Minister V.S. Acharaya Monday had expressed anguish over the delay on the part of the Kerala government in helping his police officials execute the warrant.