PDP Chairman Abdul Nasser Madani's upcoming Kerala visit with the blessing of the Supreme Court has hit a hurdle.
The terror-accused cleric-politician will have to shell out Rs 60 lakh to accommodate officials of the Karnataka Police who will be accompanying him during his three-month stay in Kerala.
Madani's advocate Kapil Sibal raised the matter before the Supreme Court on Thursday with a prayer to trim down the travelling party to make it affordable.
"On April 25 they informed us we'll be accompanied by 20 officials and cost would be 20 lakhs/month," Sibal told the court, reported Live Law.
Sibal told Justice Ajay Rastogi that only five officials had accompanied Madani during his previous Kerala visit (2018). The apex court has asked Madani to file an application.
On April 17, the apex court relaxed Madani's bail conditions allowing him to travel to Kerala to undergo Ayurveda treatment until July 8.
Madani is an accused in the 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts case that left one dead and 20 injured. He was also jailed in the case of the Coimbatore bombings in 1998 and later acquitted.
When he travelled to Kerala in 2018 on bail granted by the Supreme Court to visit his ailing parents, Madani was accompanied by six officials of the Karnataka Police. Their six-day stay and travel had cost him Rs 1,15,950.