Political decision mars Madhani’s arrest

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express


Anwarserry (Kollam), Aug. 16

Uncertainty prevailed over the arrest on PDP leader Abdul Nazir
Madhani till late on Tuesday evening as the CPM-led LDF government
preferred his surrender rather than an arrest so as to protect their
political interests.

It is reliably learnt that the police had made all plans to go ahead
with the arrest of Madhani on Tuesday morning, but was withdrawn in
the last minutes following a direction from the top brass.

Sources said that the CPM leadership’s intervention was hindering the
arrest of Madhani. The party fears a backlash as in the case of the
arrest of Madhani in the Coimbatore blast and hence the party
leadership prefers a surrender of the PDP leader rather than his
arrest so that it could get rid of a blame of facilitating the arrest
of Madhani.

Top sources in the Police Department said that Tuesday morning was the
right time to go ahead with the arrest. ``We had pooled sufficient
forces and the entire area around Anwarserry was brought under our
control over the last two days. But unfortunately, a direction form
the top came not to proceed with the arrest,” a police officer told
Express on the condition of anonymity.

The CPM leadership is also said to have held talks with PDP leaders
urging Madhani to surrender at the earliest. The stand of the
political leadership has even caused widespread resentments among the
police force.

Bangalore Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar and Deputy
Commissioner Omkarayya came down to Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday
morning and they reached Kollam by about 9.30 a.m. Even after several
rounds of the talks with senior police officers including Kollam SP
Harshita Attaluri, initially at the Kollam SP Office and at the guest
house of Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited at Chavara, the police
team could not make further headway owing to the lack of a political
nod.

Alok Kumar and Omkarayya had later returned to Thiruvananthapuram and
held talks with senior police officers. The police officers from
Bangalore is also learnt to have communicated to their higher-ups the
stand being taken by the Kerala Government.

The fresh developments have substantiated the allegations of
Karanataka Home Minister V.S.Acharya that the Kerala Police did not
cooperate with the Karanataka police in an earlier occasion.

Meanwhile, PDP working chairman Poonthura Siraj told reporters at
Anwarserry that Madhani was making all preparations for a Bangalore
trip and he would surrender at a nearby court most probably on
Wednesday.

A team of doctors led by Cardiologist Gopalkrishna Bhatt of the
Padmavathy Medical Foundation of Sasthamkota (near Anwarserry)
examined Madhani. They later told reporters that Madhani was suffering
from various ailments including chest pain, fever and back pain.
Though he was stable at present, his blood samples are sent for
detailed examination, they said.


ends