The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the Superintendent of Nagpur Central Jail to make available certain books to convict Ehtesham Qutubuddin Siddique, a death row convict in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings case, either as soft or hard copy.
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The High Court took into consideration the submission of the counsel for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) that it has asked the Nagpur prison authorities to purchase the books and give it to Siddique, if he is not entitled to access the internet in the jail.
Siddique was awarded capital punishment for the July 11, 2006 serial blasts in local trains in Mumbai, leading to the death of 189 persons and injuring 829.
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In his plea, Siddique said he has completed several courses provided by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) free of cost in jail and wanted to know more about various topics, books and materials. As books on many topics are not available in the prison library, he sought hard copies of those publications or books under the provisions of the RTI Act.
Advocate Arpit Bhargava, appearing for Siddique, said his client had mentioned in his RTI application that he was a person below poverty line and since he was in custody and being a convict he was entitled to all such publications or books free of cost.
However, his RTI request was declined by the publication division of the Ministry of I&B stating that the books or publications referred in the RTI application are costly and hence cannot be supplied free of cost to the general public under any circumstances.
“It is the fundamental right of the petitioner to have access to and acquire education and knowledge and a democratic government is under an obligation to provide means to spread education and knowledge to its citizens irrespective of the fact that a person is in jail or not,” the convict said in his petition.