Coimbatore: In the name of conspiracy, the prosecution has attempted to author a fiction based on depositions by witnesses in the Coimbatore serial blast case, defence counsel K.G. Kannabiran told the Special Court on Wednesday.

There was no link witness for establishing the depositions and the witnesses stood in isolation. Mr. Kannabiran asked the court not to take into account the deposition by witnesses who were made to see photographs and videos before attending the identification parade. Relating to four of the eight conspiracy meetings, he said most of them were "chance" witnesses used by the prosecution to establish a fictitious theory. Inherent improbabilities and isolated witnesses without link demolished the case of conspiracy, he said.

Conspiracy meetings

A witness who visited a tailor in Kottaimedu for stitching a garment had seen one of the conspiracy meetings. "Despite having had the cloth piece with him for two months, how is it that the witness had chosen to go to that particular tailor for stitching it only on that day," the defence wondered.

The witness, who regularly visited Ukkadam area for his business, had chosen to visit the tailor only in the midst of communal disturbance and police firing. But, according to the witness Ukkadam was very normal that day. He wanted the prosecution to explain how the witnesses knew the accused and why the tailor and the sister of Kottai Thangappa (in whose house the conspiracy meeting was held) were not examined and wanted to know why the tailor shop records had not been seized.

A witness belonging to a Hindu community had visited a Muslim dominant area in a riotous situation, Mr.Kannabiran said. In a house, where a conspiracy meeting was held behind closed doors, the witness was able to identify the voice of an accused even before the doors could be opened. He also noted that a decision to avenge the killings of 18 Muslim youths by teaching a lesson to the majority community was taken on November 30 night even when the violence was continuing.

A decision to plant bombs during the visit of Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani was taken in the first week of December, 1997 at the house of Nawab Khan, the fourth accused. But Mr. Advani's visit was finalised only in the first week of February 1998. Citing inherent improbabilities and contradictions, Mr. Kannabiran said the prosecution had played a game of chance.

To a deposition by an aide of S.A. Basha by name Venkatesh alias Sanjay Saifullah (a police informer who infiltrated the Al-Umma office), Mr. Kannabiran wanted to know why the witness gave a statement only after the termination of the conspiracy.

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