Phone link snapped for bill default;case put off

HUBLI: The poor judicial setup came to the fore again when a Hubli court was unable to conduct a video conference with the prime accused of the 2009 Hyderabad bomb blast, Maulana Nasiruddin, who is lodged in Ahmedabad central prison.This was apparently because the court had defaulted on BSNL phone bills.On Friday, First Additional District and Session’s Court had fixed the hearing of activists of Students Islamic Movement of India, who were brought to court.Since the other accused were lodged in Ahmedabad jail, the court sought video conferencing with Hyderabad blast prime accused Riyazuddin, Asadulla Abubakkar, Adnan, Shakeel Ahmed, Mirza Ahmed Beig, Shibli, Safdar Nagori, Kamruddin, Mohammed Yasin, Mohammed Ansari and P A Shyadli.Accordingly, arrangements were made.When the police brought the accused from Belgaum and Dharwad, First Additional District and Session Court Judge J S Deshpande asked police to bring them to the video conferencing hall.Just as the judge was set to conduct the hearing, the system failed as BSNL had disconnected the service.An angry judge pulled up the officials for bringing the accused to the court without being prepared and postponed the hearing.Shirastedar of JMFC Court Chandrashree Patki wrote to BSNL asking it to restore the link and assured that the amount of `1,353 would be paid as soon as the government provides funds.