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Al-Umma leader Basha's bail cancelled

A designated court has cancelled the bail granted to S A Basha, founder-leader of the banned Al-Umma organisation, and his associate Abdul Raheem in the case relating to the blast at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in Madras.

The incident, which occurred on August 8, 1993, killed 11 people.

Basha and Raheem were granted bail on May 22, 1995. They were arrested on February 14, following the ban on Al-Umma in the wake of the Coimbatore serial bomb blasts.

Allowing a Central Bureau of Investigation petition, Judge S Tamilvanan said the Supreme Court had clearly stated that the bail granted to an accused could be cancelled if the person misused it by indulging in similar criminal activities.

The judge also issued non-bailable arrest warrants for three other Al-Umma activists --- Mohammed Musa, Syed Mohammed Bukhari and S K Mohammed Ali -- whose bail the CBI sought to cancel.

The CBI prosecutor claimed that Raheem confessed in writing that he and Basha were involved in the December 6, 1997 train blasts. Nine people had died in the three blasts which took place on separate trains at Tiruchirapalli, Erode and Thrissur.

The judge said Basha and Raheem had already been chargesheeted in the RSS headquarters blast case. Though they were released on bail, they had not compiled with the conditions enforced by the court, he pointed out.

He held that though it could not be verified at this stage whether the charges against the duo were correct, the copy of the remand, the first information report and Raheem's statement were sufficient to decide there was prima facie evidence against them.

UNI

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