High Court dismisses petition of youth held in connection with Patna blasts

The Allahabad High Court today dismissed a petition challenging the arrest of a youth from Allahabad district in connection with the bomb explosions that took place at Patna last year during BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's maiden rally in Bihar.

A division bench, comprising Justice D P Singh and Justice Akhter Husain Khan, passed the order on the writ petition filed by Pramod Kumar Pandey, a resident of Manda tehsil, some 40 kms from the city.

It was alleged in the petition, filed through Pramod's father, that he was picked up by the police from their house on February 24 this year and that the family came to know through news reports that he had been arrested by Bihar police on the basis of statements given before NIA by blast suspects Fakhruddin and Ahmad Hassan, both of them residents of the neighboring district of Mirzapur.

The court dismissed the petition accepting the state counsel's submission that the matter involved issues of territorial jurisdiction and that since the arrest was made by Bihar police, the petitioner could seek remedy before the Patna High Court.

Eight persons, including a suspected miltant, were killed in the serial blasts that had rocked the capital of Bihar on October 28.

A number of the explosions had taken place at the Gandhi Maidan, the venue of "Hunkar Rally" which Modi making his first appearance at a public meeting in Bihar barely a few months after his party's 17-year-old alliance with ruling Janata Dal (United) in the state came to an end.