HC directive to TN govt on plea for 30-day leave for Coimbatore blasts mastermind

The Madras High Court Monday directed the Tamil Nadu government to pass orders in 10 days on a prison official's recommendation to grant 30 days leave for Al-Umma chief S A Basha, serving life term for the 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blasts in which 60 people were killed.

A bench of justices M Sathyanarayanan and M Nirmal Kumar directed the state home secretary to pass appropriate orders on the recommendation of the Superintendent of Central Prison, Coimbatore, on the plea for 30 days ordinary leave as expeditiously as possible and not later than 10 days.

It gave the interim order when a petition by Basha's daughter B Mubeena and an impleading petition from K Gopinath of a Hindu outfit opposing the relief came up for hearing.

The petitioner has sought the release of her father on 30 days ordinary leave citing certain health complications of her sister, who underwent surgeries related to pancreas and spleen in August last year, and her mother urged the court to consider the plea sympathetically.

The Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that Basha, since his conviction, had come out of prison either on leave or parole 162 times so far.

The Superintendent of the Central Prison has made a 'positive' recommendation on the latest representation seeking 30 days ordinary leave and the government was expected to pass appropriate orders very soon, he added.

Recording the submissions, the bench directed the home secretary to pass the orders and posted the matter to June 7 for further hearing.

Basha, the alleged mastermind behind the serial bomb blasts that rocked Coimbatore ahead of an election rally to have been addressed by senior BJP leader L K Advani on February 14, 1998, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court in 2007.