CoD to moot setting up of special court

By K. V. Subramanya

BANGALORE, AUG. 16. The Corps of Detectives (CoD), which has completed the investigation into the explosions in churches in the State, will give a formal proposal to the State Government to set up a special court to try all the cases.

Sources told The Hindu that setting up of a special court is necessary in order to avoid duplication of work, mainly with regard to producing the accused and evidence before the courts. Moreover, the accused and conspirators are the same in many of the cases. The special court will also ensure a speedy trial.

The CoD will soon put up a proposal before the State Government for setting up a special court to try all the cases of explosions set off at the St. Anne's Church in Wadi, St. John's Lutheran Church at Keshavapur in Hubli, St. Peter's and Paul's Church at Jagjivan Ram Nagar in Bangalore and the explosion in a van near Minerva Mills on Magadi Road in Bangalore.

The Andhra Pradesh Government has already taken the lead by announcing that a special court will be set up to try the blast cases reported in that State. The Karnataka Government too may follow suit.

The CoD, according to the sources, is also planning to appoint special prosecutors for these cases which have ``international ramifications''. A Pakistani connection has already been revealed with the investigating agencies establishing that the chief of the Deendar Channabasaveshwara Siddique organisation, Zia-ul- Hassan, and his son Zaheed Pasha, based in Pakistan, masterminded the blasts.

Referring to the suggestions that the State Government should impose a ban on the activities of the Deendar Channabasaveshwara Siddique sect, whose members are allegedly behind the explosions at religious places in Karnataka, Goa and Andhra Pradesh, the sources said that though a decision on the matter is yet to be taken, the possibility of such a decision is ``remote''.

For one thing, an entire organisation cannot be charged with setting off the explosions in churches. And, even if the sect is banned in Karnataka, its activities could continue unabated in another State, the sources pointed out.

The sources said that the CoD, which has completed the investigation, has so far arrested 16 persons, apart from those arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police. The accused have been remanded to judicial custody and are lodged in various prisons in the State.

An interesting aspect that the investigation revealed is that the majority of the accused who have been arrested are related to each other, sources said.

Though the sources are tight-lipped about the involvement of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the blasts, they did admit that apart from Zia-ul-Hassan and Zaheed Pasha, a ``powerful and a resourceful'' organisation played a key role in the blasts.

According to the information gathered by the investigators, Zia- ul-Hassan belongs to a middle-class family and is not financially sound enough to have funded the blasts or to train the Deendar members in Pakistan. Some of the Deendar members who visited Pakistan were trained in insurgency.

All these factors give the impression that some other organisation is also behind the blasts. The identity of that organisation, which may even be the ISI, has to be established, the sources noted.

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Section  : Southern States
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