Final charge-sheet filed in train blasts cases

CHENNAI, JANUARY 31: The CB-CID Special Investigation Team SIT on Monday filed the final consolidated charge-sheet in the cases relating to three train blasts on December 6, 1997, on the fifth anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition, in which 10 persons were killed and 72 others injured.The 136-page charge-sheet filed before the Judicial Magistrate V, Tiruchi, has named 10 persons including Kunnankudi R M Haneefa, president of the banned All India Jihad Committee and Erwadi Kasim, president of the militant fundamentalist outfit, Islamic Defence Force, as accused. It has also cited 348 witnesses and 398 documents which corroborate the case on behalf of the prosecution.

Four persons were killed and seven injured in the blast in the Pandiyan Express at Tiruchi railway station, while two were killed and six injured in the blast in Cheran Express, minutes after it left Erode junction. In the Allepey Express blast at Trissur railway station, four persons were killed and 59 injured. The three trains had leftChennai the previous night.

According to the chargesheet, investigations revealed that the blasts were the handiwork of militant fundamentalists outfits and the conspiracy was hatched at the Jihad Committee office at Chennai.

Many incriminating documents in this regard were seized at the Jihad Committee office and explosive devices were recovered from a house at Pulianthope where Erwadi Kasim had stayed.

The chargesheets for the Pandiyan Express blast case was filed on July 23, 1998; Cheran Express case on Oct 5, 1998 and Allepey Express case in June 1998. Later, the Madras HC ordered the clubbing together of the three cases as the conspiracy in blasts were hatched in Chennai, on a petition.