PUNE, 12 January 2006 — The request of Bombay’s Arthur Road prison Superintendent Jayant Naik, to the TADA court to move underworld don Abu Salem to another prison as he feared that the prisoner would not be safe in the jail, has created ripples in the state government.
Commenting on the submission made by Naik to the court, State Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil said that his ministry would investigate and hold an inquiry as to under what circumstances the jail superintendent had made the submission to the TADA court.
If the affidavit of the jail superintendent is found to be unnecessary, then strong action would be taken against him, and if there are any shortcomings in the Arthur Road jail, that would be rectified, Patil said and added that a decision in which state jail Abu Salem should be moved would be taken after court orders.
“The state prisons are overflowing with more than double the capacity of prisoners, which badly reflects on the facilities available at the prisons,” the home minister said.
Previously a very high security “egg cell” was set up in the jail to keep the notorious Khalistan militants there, but now even this cell is being used to keep ordinary prisoners, as the prison was housing more than its permissible capacity. Work on construction of four new prisons is going in full swing which would reduce the burden of other prisons, and a new high security prison in nearby Thane is nearly complete, Patil said.
Meanwhile former police officers lashed out at the state government for the lack of security of prisoners in the Arthur Road prison and called on the government to tackle gang rivalry, stocking of arms and weapons as also smuggling of drugs into the prison on top priority.
Stating that moving Abu Salem from Bombay to Nashik, Pune or any other prison was not a solution, former Anti Terrorist Squad chief Aftab Ahmed Khan was of he opinion that if Abu Salem was unsafe in Arthur Road prison, so he can be anywhere else, as rival gang members in other prisons would target him there too.
Khan further stated that the moving out of Abu Salem to Nashik was like having the feeling that security prevails in Nashik but not in Arthur Road prison.
