From the recovery of multiple cell phones, including two from the top-security Anda Cell, to violent fights among inmates with improvised weapons like sharpened pieces of tin sheets, several recent incidents inside the Yerawada Central Prison in Pune have raised serious concerns over the 150-year-old maximum-security facility.
But none of them can match what happened on the morning of June 8, 2012—for its gravity, the shock waves it sent within the security apparatus, and yes, the murder weapon.
That day, Mohammed Qateel Mohammed Jafir Siddiqui (28), an alleged member of the Indian Mujahideen terror outfit, was strangled inside the Anda Cell with a string removed from a pair of Bermuda shorts.
Dreaded gangster Sharad Hiraman Mohol (then 27) and his aide Alok Bhalerao (then 22), who were in the Anda Cell at the time, were charged with Qateel’s murder. But seven years later, in June 2019, the two were acquitted by a court in Pune due to lack of evidence.
Here is what really happened—and how.
Qateel was arrested by Delhi Police on November 22, 2011, after an investigation revealed his alleged roles in the Jama Masjid blast in the capital, the Chinnaswamy Stadium blast in Bengaluru, the German Bakery blast in Pune and an attempt to bomb the famous Dagdusheth Halwai Ganesh Temple in Pune.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad obtained Qateel’s transit remand on May 2, 2012, and brought him to Pune. He was not named as an accused in the German Bakery case but listed as one in the Dagdusheth temple case. According to the ATS, he placed a bag containing an IED at a flower vendor’s stall outside the temple on February 13, 2010. But the vendor reportedly spotted the bag and asked Qateel to take it back, allegedly leading to an argument between the two. It was claimed that Qateel left the premises with the IED, as police were deployed around the temple, and later destroyed it in Mumbai.
After a stint in ATS custody, Qateel was remanded in judicial custody and lodged in Yerawada jail. He was to be produced before the court on June 8, 2012, for extension in custody—but was murdered that day.
The fallout was swift. The then in-charge of the Anda Cell, Chandrakiran Vishwanath Tayade (42), lodged an FIR against gangsters Mohol and Bhalerao on various charges, including murder. And a day after the incident, the then Yerawada jail superintendent, S V Khatavkar, was suspended along with four other jail officials.
According to the prosecution, at the time of the murder, Qateel was lodged in barrack number four of the 12-barrack Anda Cell with several hardened criminals, including Mohol and Bhalerao, lodged in adjacent barracks.
It was alleged that Qateel was moving around in the open space of the Anda Cell on June 8 around 9.45 am, when Bhalerao asked him how he got sleep “after killing so many people”. Later, according to the prosecution, Qateel told Mohol that he was responsible for the blasts at Jama Masjid in Delhi and the stadium in Bengaluru—and had attempted a blast at Pune’s Dagdusheth temple.
Mohol and Bhalerao allegedly entered Qateel’s cell and strangled him with a string from a pair of Bermuda shorts while Bhalerao held his legs. It was further alleged that the gangster duo burnt the string and dumped the ash in the toilet.
The prosecution submitted that Mohol and Bhalerao decided to kill Qateel to prevent him from getting another bomb planted at the Dagdusheth temple. According to the prosecution, two other prisoners, Akbar Shaikh and Balu Waghire, had also recounted the incident.
During the trial, however, the court observed that the most important evidence submitted by the prosecution was “oral extra-judicial confession made by the accused persons to prison officer” Tayade. As per Tayade’s witness statement, Mohol and Bhalerao told him that they murdered Qateel. A few senior officers were also present when the accused allegedly confessed to Tayade, it stated.
But defence lawyer Prakash Suryawanshi pointed out that these officers were not examined by the prosecution. He also argued that jail officer Tayade was a stranger to the accused, so “there is no possibility that the accused will confess guilt in front of him”. The defence argued that the prosecution had failed to establish the motive.
Finally, the court of Additional Sessions Judge S H Gwalani stated that extrajudicial confessions made by the accused are unreliable and not worthy of credence. The court also raised doubts about the “story of the prosecution” that the accused had made an extrajudicial confession in front of senior prison officers.
Besides, of the 17 witnesses examined, six key witnesses—including some jail inmates at the time — turned hostile during the trial.
The court observed, “Though the material on record holds some suspicion towards the accused, the prosecution had failed to elevate its case from the realm of ‘may be true’ to the plane of ‘must be true’, as is indispensably required in law for conviction on a criminal charge.”
A resident of Sutardara in Kothrud, Mohol continues to face multiple criminal cases, including of murder. He was convicted and awarded life imprisonment by a court in a murder case lodged at the Dattawadi police station in 2010. But he moved the Bombay High Court against the conviction and obtained bail in 2021.
According to police, after being released from jail, Mohol was booked in two cases lodged at the Khadak and Hinjewadi police stations, respectively. Last July, the Pune police externed him from the limits of the city, Pimpri Chinchwad and the district for six months.
Incidentally, last month, Mohol’s wife Swati joined the BJP in the presence of minister Chandrakant Patil.
What is Anda Cell?
Termed as Anda Cell because of its oval shape, like that of an egg, this high-security area is a feature of almost all maximum-security central prisons. Officials say this cell is designed to keep its inmates separate and give patrolling officers the maximum possible view of each inmate. The cell is detached from the rest of the prison, with a separate yard and other facilities, thus completely separating its inmates from the rest of the prison population.
The two accused at a court hearing. (File) 
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