PRABHA SRIDEVAN, J.

The 14th of February 1998 was a day of unimaginable terror and horror as bombs continuously exploded in the city of Coimbatore. The State of Tamil Nadu had never before been subjected to something like this. It was a massacre of the innocents. The case was known as the ‘Coimbatore Bomb Blasts Case’. The trial court pronounced the judgment in that case on 01-08-2007. Thus, a trial, which had a sweep of unprecedented magnitude, came to an end. But it inflicted wounds on all barring none. The wounds still remain. Violence is always a comma, and is never a full stop.

2. The case of the prosecution is stated hereunder. We have abbreviated the narration of the prosecution case restricting it only to the relevant details: The city of Coimbatore was subjected to 19 bomb explosions, between 14-02-1998 and 17-02-1998, resulting in the death of 58 persons and injuries to 250 persons and huge loss to private and public properties. Bombs planted in 24 places were recovered/defused. According to the prosecution, this was engineered by a fundamentalist organisation called Al Umma. A1, S.A. Basha is the founder/leader of Al Umma. In an earlier case, he had been convicted and sentenced to undergo three years imprisonment for attempt to murder. Thereafter, there had been several instances of communal violence in and around Coimbatore city. This gained momentum after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in the year 1992, and there had been police firing, destruction of public transport vehicles and damage to temples. A1 and others were arrested on 16-11-1993 in connection with the bomb blast at the R.S.S. Office at Chennai. 16 members of Al Umma, including A1, were taken into custody under the Terrorist And Destructive Activities (TADA) Act, but were released, in February 1997. A1 became the State President of Al Umma’. According to the prosecution, teams were formed with young men to become shaheeds’ (martyrs) in the cause of Islam. On 30-11-1997, an incident took place and that was the death of a Traffic Constable Selvaraj at the hands of Al Umma cadres. This resulted in a brutal retaliation, where 18 Muslims were killed. According to the prosecution, the photographs and video clippings of the dead bodies of these persons were distributed to incite feelings of revenge and violence, which took the form of the blasts on 14-02-1998. To demonstrate their feelings, they chose the day of B.J.P. Leader Mr. L.K. Advani’s visit to Coimbatore, to attend an Election Rally. To execute the plot, various accused had procured explosives, transported them, assembled them and planted them at strategic locations and caused the explosions.

3. According to the prosecution, during the months of December 1997, January and February 1998, there was a meeting of minds for the conspiracy amongst the accused in Coimbatore, Chennai, Sathyamangalam and Kerala. At these meetings, the decision was taken; thereafter explosives were procured from Karnataka and Kerala; the explosives were then transported to Coimbatore by buses and cars; they were assembled as pipe bombs or box bombs at the houses of some accused; they were subsequently distributed to other accused with specific instructions to plant them at the appointed places; they were planted accordingly and detonated, resulting in the devastation. Different tasks were assigned to each of the accused that were carried out by them as per the instructions. The prosecution claimed that there were eyewitnesses to prove its case. The particulars of the cases registered under various crime numbers in different police stations, relating to the accused who have filed the appeals, in and around Coimbatore are given below:

Sl. No. Police Station Crime No. & date

F.I.R. Ex-No. Location of Blasts / Bombs diffused

Fatalities/ Injuries Witnesses

1.

B-1 Bazaar Police Station

147/98

Dtd.

12. 98

Ex-P.184

Gani Rowther Street

7 persons killed and 19 injured

P.W.1050

P.K. Mohanan & P.W.832 Kumaran

2.

B-1 Bazaar P