Coimbatore: "Nearly 1,000 kg of gelatine was procured from a private explosive dealer in Mysore in Karnataka for the Coimbatore serial blasts in February 14, 1998," prosecution counsel told the Judge of the Special Court for Bomb Blast Cases, K. Uthirpathy, here on Tuesday.

Defence Counsel, P. Thirumalairajan and M.H. Abdur Rahmaan, said that the prosecution counsel T. Balasundaram and T.A. Selvaraj continued with their arguments relating to conspiracy by the banned outfit Al-Umma.

The prosecution arguments were in respect of procurement of gelatines from a dealer in Mysore.

Its arguments were based on the evidence deposed by a number of witnesses from Mysore including explosive dealers, engineers in charge of irrigation projects and explosive agents besides that of an approver in the case.

Prosecution argued that extremists sourced the gelatine from a private explosive dealer firm run by Riaz-ur-Rehman, who had subsequently turned an approver in the case.

The dealer was licensed to provide explosive materials for irrigation projects and the employees had diverted the explosives to extremists for their subversive activities, the prosecution argued.

Mohammed Dasthagir, an employee of Riaz-ur-Rehman was arrested in connection with the same and was lodged at the Coimbatore Central Prison, where he died in 2002.

Prosecution based its arguments also on the evidence given by officials from three agencies involved in irrigation projects in Karnataka.

They pointed out that the purchase invoices with the agencies in charge of irrigation projects never tallied with the records relating to purchase/sale and stock maintained by the explosive dealer in dispute.

In addition to the particular explosive dealer, staff from two others explosive dealers from Mysore had also been examined earlier as witnesses.

Arguments relating to transportation of these explosives to Coimbatore and procurement from Kerala are likely to be taken up by the prosecution on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

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