Setback for NIA as Kerala HC acquits accused

Kochi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday suffered a serious setback when the Kerala High Court acquitted a prime accused and dismissed an appeal against the acquittal of another accused, in what was the first case registered by the premier probe agency in the state.

The case pertained to a twin bomb blast at the Kozhikode mofussil bus stand and at the KSRTC bus stand on March 3, 2006.

It was a rare case where the accused informed the authorities and the media about the location of the bombs after planting them.

The case was initially investigated by the local police and the case was taken over by the NIA in 2009.

The Kerala High Court on Thursday allowed the appeals of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Thadiyantevida Nazeer and Shafaz, prime accused in the twin bomb blast case, thereby acquitting them.

The Division Bench of Justice Vinod K. Chandran and Justice C. Jayachandran also declined the appeal filed by the NIA challenging the trial court's order acquitting two other accused in the case.

Nazeer and Shafaz, the first and fourth accused in the case, had filed an appeal seeking to quash the life sentence imposed on them by the trial court.

They also refuted the trial court's finding that they had committed offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

While the accused had moved the Court alleging that they were innocent, the NIA had also preferred an appeal aggrieved by the trial court's decision acquitting the third and ninth accused in the case, Abdul Halim and Abubaker Yusuf.