BENGALURU: The 2008 Bengaluru serial blast accused and chairman of Kerala’s People Democratic Party Abdul Nasser Madani is perhaps the most ‘expensive’ undertrial prisoner that Karnataka has had for a long time.
He was arrested in August 2010 from Kerala and was kept in judicial custody at Bengaluru Central Prison. In July 2014, while giving him conditional bail, the Supreme Court had directed the police to provide adequate security for him and ensure that he didn’t leave the city. Madani has since been living in Bengaluru under police cover. A conservative estimate of his security is around Rs 1 crore, given the fact that four constables of the City Armed Reserve (CAR) are deployed on round-the-clock duty for him.
“Considering that the minimum salary of a constable is around Rs 30,000, a conservative estimate of the state expenditure on the security of the 2008 blast accused is around Rs 1 crore. There are other expenses also — on police escorts, when he goes to Kerala on court permission,” an officer said. In 2017, Madani had attended his son’s wedding in Kerala after obtaining permission from the Supreme Court. The city police had sought Rs 14.79 lakh from him for a 19-member escort team, when the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had intervened. He wrote a letter to then chief minister Siddaramaiah, requesting him to reduce Madani’s security bill.
Madani has been in and out of hospitals since he was granted bail. He is an amputee, is wheelchair-bound, a diabetic and suffers from hypertension. Madani was admitted to Soukya — a wellness centre of international repute in Bengaluru rural — last month.