Muslim groups allege torture of blasts accused

Muslim groups in Rajasthan have alleged that over a dozen persons accused of carrying out and conspiring in the May 2008 serial blasts in Jaipur were being kept at the Central Jail here without basic amenities in violation of the Jail Manual and forced to make fresh confession despite the completion of investigation.

A five-member delegation of Muslim groups met Jail Superintendent Otta Ram Rohin here earlier this week to register their protest against the treatment being meted out to the inmates even though their alleged role in the blasts is yet to be established and the trial in the main case is yet to start.

“Confessions extracted”

One of the accused has complained that the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials, being given access to the inmates in the jail, are compelling them to put signatures on plain papers.

The ATS has already filed charge-sheets against all the accused in the court.

The delegation members, representing the Jamat-e-Islami Hind and the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), pointed out that confining the accused in small and inadequately ventilated cells without electric fan in the present hot climate amounted to their “indirect torture.” They were allowed to come out of cells within the jail premises only for three hours daily.

For over 18 months

The accused have been incarcerated in the jail for more than a year-and-a-half.