SC to hear Maudany's plea for joint trial

The Supreme Court will hear on November 4 the plea by 2008 Bengaluru serial bomb blast conspiracy prime accused and Kerala's People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Nazir Maudany seeking the joint trial of cases as most witnesses and accused were common.

A bench of Justice J.Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre decided to hear the plea as counsel Prashant Bhushan appearing for Maudany told the court that 98 pecent of the witnesses are same, the accused are same and even charges are same.

As court said that it will have to examine whether a common trial was "legally permissible", Bhushan said separate trial in nine cases would take a long time.

While the court decided to hear the matter on November 4, senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Karnataka government, contended that Maudany could make the same plea before the trial court itself.

Maudany was arrested on August 17, 2010, in connection with the conspiracy in Bengaluru serial bomb blast case.

He was granted bail on July 11, 2014, which was extended by two weeks August 11, 2014 and the same was extended by four months November 14 as court had given Karnataka four month time to conclude the trial.

On May 15 this year, Maudany was allowed to travel to Kerala for five days to see his ailing mother.