Maudany’s wife named in Tamil Nadu bus burning case

KOCHI - The National Investigating Agency (NIA) Friday accused 14 activists of the People’s Democratic Party, including its jailed leader Abdul Nasir Maudany’s wife, of “waging war against the state” in a case of the burning of a Tamil Nadu state transport bus five years ago.

The charge sheet, filed in a special NIA court, named Umar Haji alias T.Naseer, a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, as the prime accused. Madani’s wife Sufia has also been named in the case, which involves suspected activists of the PDP.

Sufia was arrested Dec 18 last year and was released on bail Dec 23 by a Kochi court.

Haji is also an accused in the 2008 Bangalore blast case and is suspected to be involved in training terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, a home ministry statement said.

The charge sheet alleges that the accused Sep 9, 2005, hijacked a passenger bus that was going from Ernakulam in Kerala to Salem in Tamil Nadu.

They hijacked the bus “by pointing a pistol and knife” to the driver and took it to an “isolated place and set it on fire”, the statement quoted from the charge sheet.

“The accused displayed their hatred against the state which was the outcome of the conspiracy to wage war against the state,” it said.

In its investigations, the NIA has found that the accused had entered into a criminal conspiracy to “wage war against the state by criminal force against the decision of Tamil Nadu to imprison their leader” Nasir Maudany.

They wanted to put pressure on Tamil Nadu to secure their leader’s release from Coimbatore jail.

Maudany is in jail an under-trial for his alleged involvement in the 2008 serial explosions in Bangalore.