Special court formed to try blast case: Karnataka government to SC

New Delhi: The Karnataka government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that a notification had been issued to set up a special court to exclusively hear the ‘bomb blast case’, in which Abdul Naseer Madani is one of the accused.

Senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, appearing for State gave this information before a bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and A.M. Sapre and said since this court would exclusively hear the case being prosecuted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the trial would be expedited.    

Counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Madani said a new court had been constituted last December on the grounds that the case had been transferred to NIA. He said this was done though 70 per cent of the trial had been completed.

The new judge had sought more time, he said and suggested that the court be shifted to the jail premises to ensure that time was not wasted in transporting the accused from the jail to the court.

Justice Chelameswar sought to know from Karnataka whether the new NIA court could be located in jail premises so that the trial could be completed expeditiously. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing after two weeks. Madani is presently out on bail.