One of the eight under trial prisoners who was killed in an encounter with the Madhya Pradesh police under suspicious circumstances, hours after a daring jailbreak in Bhopal, had been acquitted in 2012 by a local court on the charge of being a member of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
The prisoner — Mohammad Aqeel Khilji (45) — was arrested by the Khandwa police in 2001 for being a member of the banned organisation.
Ultimately, the court did not find the literature found on him to be ‘objectionable’ and Khilji was acquitted on October 3, 2012 in a process that had taken 10 years.
He, however, continued to be in jail for his involvement in a case of bank robbery and his escape from the Khandwa prison in October the following year.
Help from outsiderThe lawyer of the eight prisoners told The Hindu that there were gaping holes in the police version of the escape, especially their suggestion that the escapees got help from an outsider who gave them dry fruits and weapons.
“If the outsider provided them with weapons, cashew nuts, raisins, which the police claim were found on them, what stopped that outsider from arranging a vehicle for them that could have dropped them some 300 kilometres away?” asked Parvaiz Alam, counsel for the undertrial prisoners.
Mr. Alam said he seldom went to meet his clients in the prison as he feared being framed by the police in some terror case.
“Whenever we spoke, it was through video conferencing in the presence of court. In all the meetings, I never saw them wearing jeans and T-shirt. They always wore kurta pyjamas. The police should explain the brand new clothes, shoes and watches on them,” said Mr. Alam.
The counsel said the prisoners came from poor families and had asked him several times when the trial would get over.
“The under trial prisoners were sure that they would be acquitted but the prosecution was unnecessarily delaying the case,” Mr. Alam charged.
