A convict in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, Munna alias Mohammed Ali Khan alias Manojkumar Bhavarlal Gupta (59), was murdered by a group of undertrials at the Kolhapur Central Prison, located at Kalamba in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, on Sunday morning. A prima facie probe by the Kolhapur police has revealed that the incident took place some time after the attendance of jail inmates was recorded around 6.30 am and they were brought to the open space near a water tank at circle number 2 in the prison. Police suspect a quarrel broke out between Munna and five criminals when he went to the water tank for bathing. During the quarrel, the accused allegedly hit Munna’s head with a manhole cover repeatedly, causing his death. When contacted, Kolhapur SP Mahendra Pandit said the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict was murdered by five undertrials who are facing charges under sections of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The police have identified the accused as Deepak Netaji Khot, Saurabh Vikas Siddha, Pratik alias Pilya Suresh Patil, Sandip alias Bablu Shankar Chavan and Ruturaj Inamdar. Police sources said all five do not belong to the same gang and it is being investigated why they together attacked Munna, with whom they are not known to have any previous dispute. Meanwhile, a murder FIR was lodged against the five men at the Juna Rajwada police station and further investigation is on, police said. Police inspector Sanjivkumar Zade of Rajwada police station said that the five accused were booked under sections 302 (murder) and 353 (causing disturbance in government work) of the IPC. “When the five accused attacked the deceased, jail personnel tried to stop them. But the assailants manhandled the jail staffers and committed the murder,” said Zade. “The exact cause behind the murder is not confirmed yet. We have not got custody of the five accused yet. As per legal procedure, we will be filing an application before the court to seek their custody from jail,” Zade said. The police said the deceased was a Mumbai resident and was serving life imprisonment at the Kolhapur Central Prison after being convicted for his role in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. In February 2023, a prisoner Satpal Singh was murdered by another inmate in the Kolhapur Central Prison. Besides, there have been several incidents of recovery of a large number of cellphones and narcotics substances like marijuana from the prison in the last few months. Last month, following the recovery of a ‘dozen’ cellphones and SIM cards during a coordinated sweep conducted inside the high-security prison, two prison officers and nine prison guards were dismissed from service by the Pune-headquartered state Prison Department.
