Coimbatore, Aug. 1: Nine years after L.K. Advani missed death by a whisker, a special court today convicted S.A. Basha, the alleged kingpin of the forgotten serial blasts that rocked this textile city.

Judge K. Uthirapathy, however, cleared ailing hardliner Abdul Nasser Madhani, chief of the Kerala-based People’s Democratic Party, of all charges, including conspiracy to trigger the February 1998 explosions that killed 58 people and wounded over 250.

In a double reprieve, Madhani, who has an artificial leg and suffers from various ailments, including diabetes, was also granted bail today by Kerala High Court in a 15-year-old case of violence.

In Coimbatore, judge Uthirapathy convicted Basha, the founder of the banned fundamentalist group al Umma, of hatching a criminal conspiracy to trigger the explosions and to create enmity between two communities.

Mohammed Ansari, the group’s general secretary, and nearly 70 others were also found guilty of plotting the terror attack, south India’s biggest which investigators said was code-named Operation Allah--Akbar. Some 80 others were also convicted, but of lesser charges.

Nineteen blasts had rocked the city on February 14 shortly before Advani, then the Union home minister, was to address an election meeting. One of the bombs went off near a dais from where the BJP leader would have been canvassing votes and could have proved fatal had his plane not been late.

The special investigation team, which probed the blasts, said they were part of a conspiracy to eliminate Advani in retaliation for the killing of 17 Muslims during riots in the textile town in late 1997.

The judge deferred his verdict on five accused on technical grounds and acquitted seven, besides Madhani. One of the 166 accused — most of them al Umma loyalists — died in custody while another turned approver. The sentences are expected to be pronounced from August 6.

The verdicts — a day after a judge in Mumbai wrapped up a 14-year-old case that has never faded from public memory, the 1993 Bombay blasts — came after the special court examined about 1,300 witnesses since the trial began in March 2002.

The judge, who stepped into the courtroom at sharp 10.30am, straightaway called the main accused, Basha, to the dock. Uthirapathy told Basha that the charges of criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity between religious groups “have been proved”. An unruffled Basha urged the judge to pronounce the verdict soon. “We have already been in jail for over nine years,” he said.

Madhani, brought in a wheelchair, had a wry smile on his face as the judge went over the charges. When the PDP leader’s turn came, the judge said: “All the charges against you have not been proved.”

Late in the evening, Madhani was released on bail. “Thanks to God and all those who stood by me,” he said, before leaving for Kerala.