In compliance with a directive issued by the Bombay High Court last week, the Maharashtra prison department has transferred German Bakery blast convict Himayat Baig from Pune’s high security Yerwada Central jail to Nagpur Central Prison after the convict cited a serious threat to his life.
According to prison sources, Mr. Baig was “secretly transferred” on Thursday afternoon last week to avoid any notice and preclude any untoward incident.
A panic letter shot out by Baig last month to the Mulniwasi Muslim Manch - a social organisation working for the uplift of Muslims - >had alleged that he was the victim of a lethal assault by his inmates in Yerwada where he is being lodged since December last year.
Following this, Baig’s lawyers urged the court to shift Baig to any other prison. The court then directed the Prison Department to reply whether a transfer was possible. To this, the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS), in an affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court, had dismissed Baig’s importunations for a transfer, submitting that the convict was “lying” and that his fears were “a figment of his imagination.”
Official sources said that the State wanted to prevent a reprise of the murder of alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Mohammad Qateel Siddiqui, who was killed by his co-inmate, gangster Sharad Mohol and his cohorts in Yerwada in 2012. The analogy between Siddiqui’s murder and his assault was mentioned by Baig in his letter.
“We welcome Baig’s transfer to Nagpur Central Prison as there was a genuine threat to his life in Yerwada prison. In this case too, we have reason to believe the assault on Baig was prompted by members of the Mohol gang,” said city-based activist and president of the Mulniwasi Manch, Anjum Inamdar, to whom Baig had addressed his desperate letter.
Mr. Inamdar, however, said a transfer to Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail would have been preferable as a shift to Nagpur would cause communication problems between Baig and his elderly, ailing parents who lived in poverty in Beed district.
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