Chennai, December 18: Madras High Court today upheld the life sentence of 18 Al Umma activists awarded by a lower court in the case related to 1998 serial bomb blasts that rocked Coimbatore killing 52 people, hours ahead of BJP leader L K Advani’s election meeting.
The lower court’s exoneration of People’s Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Madani was upheld by a Division Bench, comprising Justices Prabha Sridevan and M Satyanarayanan, which dismissed a plea against his acquittal.
Setting aside their conviction by the Special Court in Coimbatore in 2007, it also acquitted 21 Al-Umma activists.
The bench, which passed orders on petitions from the 39 convicts appealing against the trial court’s sentence and revision petition challenging the acquittal of Madani, dismissed another petition seeking enhancement of the life sentence to Al-Umma founder S A Basha.
–Agencies