By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: In a landmark decision, the Bombay High Court on July 21 ordered a departmental inquiry against the former Arthur Road jail superintendent Swati Sathe and other jail officers for alleged excessive use of force on about 40 Muslim inmates while they were being transferred to other jails of the state.
Chief Secretary of state Johny Joseph has been asked by the two-member bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and A R Joshi to initiate disciplinary inquiry against the concerned authorities within a month time and complete it within six months.
If needed, in addition to disciplinary inquiry, the guilty officials can be prosecuted in criminal court, the bench said. Your browser may not support display of this image.
The court has also asked that inmates be transferred back to Arthur Road jail and that in future none of the undertrials should be transferred from any jail before the concerned court is contacted. ‘We hold that the transfer of the prisoners was illegal and they should be transferred back to Arthur Road jail,’ observed the judges.
On June 28, 2008, 39 Muslim inmates, accused in Aurangabad arms seizure, Mumbai local trains blasts and Malegaon ‘06 blasts cases and imprisoned in Arthur Road jail, were beaten up by iron rods allegedly on the instruction of then jail superintendent Swati Sathe when they were being transferred to Ratnagiri, Kolhapur and Nagpur jails. Some of them had sustained serious head injuries and fractures on the legs.
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‘Force was used excessively for extraneous reasons and the law was flouted,’ the judges said.
The verdict has followed a petition filed by Saeed Suhail Shaikh, son of 7/11 undertrial accused Suhail Mehbood Shaikh, on July 9, 2008, with the help of Jamiat Ulama Maharashtra. In the petition Saeed had said that his father, along with many other prisoners, was beaten mercilessly, leading to a fracture in his leg. He added that his father had not been given any medical treatment after the incident.
Swati Sathe, in a subsequent affidavit, had defended the police action saying that while some of them were gathered for being transferred to other jails they including Dr Tanweer Ansari and Kamal Ansari, accused in 7/11 case, shouted anti-India slogans Your browser may not support display of this image. Pakistan Zindabad, Hindustan Murdabad. She added in the affidavit that they assaulted staff and force was used to control them. The affidavit had also stated that they were treated by the jail doctors. She claimed that MCOCA court had given permission for transferring some of the undertrials to other jails due to overcrowding in Arthur Road Jail.
Advocate Shahid Azmi who is following the accused told an Urdu daily that the reason they were beaten was that some of them had refused to turn approver on which ATS was insisting. While some others had complained at different times against the jail authorities.
The principal session judge T V Nalawade whom the Bombay HC had instructed to investigate the matter after petition was filed by Saeed says in his report that the affidavit filed by the jail management is false and symbolic to prejudice towards a certain community. Your browser may not support display of this image.
The doctors of Arthur Road and Nagpur jails etc. may also come under scanner for allegedly concealing facts and giving false reports.