14 days judicial custody for Maudany’s wife

ALUVA - A Kerala court Friday sent Sufiya Maudany, wife of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Abdul Nazir Maudany, to 14 days in judicial custody in a bus burning case of 2005.

Dismissing Sufiya’s bail plea, Aluva first class judicial magistrate agreed to her demand that she be sent to a jail in Ernakulam and not to Muvattupuzha sub-jail.

The Kerala High Court Thursday had dismissed Sufiya’s anticipatory bail plea after which she was arrested from Kochi.

Sufiya has been named as the 10th accused in the burning of a Tamil Nadu State Transport bus in Kalamasserry in 2005. The first accused in the case is south India chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) T. Nazeer, who is also in custody.

Arriving here amid high security, Sufiya was dressed in traditional Muslim ‘burqa’. Police had barricaded the entire premises, but a large crowd had gathered outside the court.

Kochi Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham told reporters that Sufiya had being questioned and many vital leads have been elicited.

“The questioning is almost over and we will not seek her custody now. She would be sent to judicial custody,” Abraham said.

PDP leaders said in Kollam that Sufiya was wrongly framed in the case and demanded narco-analysis tests on the investigating officers.

The state-run bus was burnt after reports that Maudany was ill-treated in a Coimbatote jail. Maudany was in jail for nine years from 1998-2007 as an accused in a bomb blast targeting a rally by Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani in Coimbatore.

He was, however, exonerated in 2007.