Alleged 26/11 conspirator Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal has sent another letter to a court here asking for a stay on his trial till he was treated on a par with other prisoners. Alleging that jail authorities made him feel as if he was living in >‘Guantánamo Bay’ , Jundal made it clear that he had begun his indefinite fast.
Jundal has been demanding that he be shifted him from solitary confinement in the Mumbai Arthur Road jail where he is currently lodgedand previously threatened to go on fast if his demands were not fulfilled.
In his letter on April 18, Jundal made it clear that he had indeed started his indefinite fast. “I am punished with solitary confinement in pretrial proceeding and punished to live in illegal jail like Guantánamo Bay. Hence, I found that court is not interested in my being and my constitutional right. So I have decided to fast till my death,” he wrote in a letter, adding that he need not be tried by the court. He also asked the court to leave him alone till his request to treat him on a par with other prisoners is not complied with.
Security reasons
The jail authority, however, made it clear that he had been kept in the solitary confinement — in the same cell where Ajmal Kasab was kept before being executed — due to security reasons. The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court made it clear that it cannot intervene in such matters. The next hearing is scheduled on April 20.
