Thiruvananthapuram, April 1: A magistrate has sought a police report on the allegation that Sufiya Madani, wife of People’s Democratic Party chairman Abdul Nasser Madani, was behind the burning of a Tamil Nadu bus near Kochi four years ago to protest against the “torture” of her husband in Coimbatore jail.

Aluva first class magistrate V.S. Vidyadharan directed the police at Kalamassery, near Kochi, to submit the report by June 1. The charge is that Sufiya had plotted and funded the bus burning to send a strong message to the Tamil Nadu government after she learnt about her husband’s “plight” in the high-security jail in Coimbatore.

Madani, with whom the CPM has an alliance for the coming polls, was accused of masterminding blasts in Coimbatore to assassinate BJP leader L.K. Advani in 1998. He has since been acquitted.

A Thrissur resident, P.D. Jose, contended in his complaint that judicial confessions by the accused in the burning of the passenger bus at Kalamassery on September 9, 2005, incriminated Sufiya but the police had refused to interrogate her.

Key accused Majeed Parambayi, the PDP secretary in the northern Kannur district in 2000-01, had alleged in his statement that he and three others got Rs 20,000 each from Sufiya. The bus, on a night trip, was torched after assailants offloaded passengers in a deserted area.

According to Majeed, Sufiya had broached the idea with him at her residence in Kochi.

The PDP had condemned the incident, denying it had anything to do with the arson.

In another embarrassment, Sainudiin alias Sattar, picked up by Karnataka police in connection with blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, allegedly said he had close contact with Abdul Madani.