Blast accused refutes 'phoney' raid at Arthur Road jail

A recent raid in the Arthur Road prison during which 42 mobile phones were found has recently come to the fore, not through the police, but a 1993 blast case accused. The police on the other hand had a different story to tell, saying that only four phones were seized, along with a tablet and cell phone found in the high security anda cell housing a dreaded terrorist.

Blast accused Karimullah Khan submitted an application before the special Terrorist and disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court from Arthur road prison on October 11, according to which 42 phones were seized from the prison. Khan, while addressing the application before the court presided over by special judge Govind Sanap, maintained that jail officials were unnecessarily harassing accused by seeking copies of court orders every time they tried to take in certain permitted articles into the prison.

As per the application, the accused are allowed to take certain articles like toiletries, home food, foot wear, etc. to the jail premises while leaving court. However after the mobile phone raid, prison authorities had started unnecessarily harassing the accused time and again seeking a copy of the court's order permitting the articles before they are allowed to take them in. "When the court allows an application, a copy of the order is sent to the jail authorities. However, the authorities, instead of checking their own records, ask us for copies of the order. If we fail to produce it, all our food items are seized by them," said the accused.

The raid which yielded 42 mobile phones was confirmed by a source. The source maintained, "There was a sudden raid by the Thane security department in the Arthur road prison, when the squad seized almost 42 cell phones from the prisoners. Instead, they only noted that the most dreaded terrorist, who is lodged in the high security anda cell, was found in possession of a tablet and a mobile phone."

However, according to the Mumbai police, they recovered only four phones and accordingly have registered cases against accused Afroz Khan, Feroz Sayyed, Mohammed Alwar, Nadeem Shaikh, Mohammed Shaikh and Mohammed Ahmed. "A case was registered with the N M Joshi Marg police station by the jail authorities, after they found four mobiles inside the jail. Two were found inside the cell of the accused and two were found lying in the premises. We are investigating how the mobiles were taken inside the jail," said assistant police inspector Rajendra Godse from N M Joshi Marg police station.