PTI

Coimbatore, Aug 1: A sessions court here will start pronouncing its verdict from Wednesday in the 1998 serial bomb blasts cases here, bringing down the curtains on the nine-year long anxious wait of the 166 accused and their families.

Judge K Uthirapathi would deliver his judgement on the 220 core charges against the 166 accused in the 19 bomb blasts which rocked the city on February 14 during the election campaign visit of senior BJP leader L K Advani, claiming 58 lives and injuring more than 200 people.

The sentences are expected to be pronounced from August 6 onwards, after hearing arguments by the defence. The blasts also caused a property loss worth over Rs.14 crore in the industrial city.

Among the 168 arrested, majority of them owing allegiance to banned Al-Umma, one had turned approver and another died while in custody. The main accused include S A Basha, the founder of Al-Umma, Mohammed Ansari, its general secretary, and Abdul Nasser Mahdhani, chairman of Kerala-based PDP.

The special investigation team of Tamil Nadu CB-CID, which probed the cases, has argued that the blasts, carried out under the title "Operation Allahu Akbar", was part of the conspiracy to eliminate Advani. It was a retaliation to the killing of 17 Muslims in the riots and subsequent police firings, as a fall out to the murder of Selvaraj, a traffic constable in the city on November 29, 1997.

The trial began in March 2002 and arguments in June 2006. It was completed on April 10 last, examining about 1,300 witnesses out of a total 2,345. Scores of police personnel, particularly those escorting the accused from the jail to the court and part of the security around the court, would also be heaving a sigh of relief with the process nearing its end.

It would be tense and anxious moments for the defence lawyers to know the fate of their clients. A senior defence lawyer said most of the accused have been in jail for eight to nine years, which would be more than the expected quantum of sentence, if proved guilty of various charges, particularly under the Explosive Substance Act 1908.

For many children, it could be a reunion after a long gap with their father brother, paternal or maternal uncles, if they were to be acquitted. Similarly, women, whose breadwinning husbands or sons were lodged in the jail for the last nine years, are eagerly awaiting the return of their near and dear ones.

A tight security blanket would be thrown in and around the city from Tuesday night. Though, there were no specific threats, the arrangements, with bomb disposal squad, sniffer dogs, armed reserve police, are preventive in nature, according to Police Commissioner C K Gandhirajan.

A double-layer security would be in place at the court complex and there would be 24-hours vehicle checks and round patrolling, till the last sentence was pronounced.