Himayat Baig letter: Father seeks probe, police deny assault claim
Delegation of social activists to meet ADGP-Prisons Meeran Borwankar.
Family members of Himayat Baig at the Yerawada police station on Sunday. (Source: Express Photo by Pavan Khengre)
A day after German Bakery blast accused Himayat Baig alleged that he was subjected to a “deadly assault” inside the prison, the Yerawada police have claimed that no such incident ever took place. Baig had made the allegation in a letter written to city-based activist Anjum Inamdar.
On Sunday, Baig’s father approached the Yerawada police with an application demanding investigation into the alleged assault inside the high-security Anda Cell and protection for his son from “goons”. Baig was allegedly assaulted on February 19.
In his complaint, Mirza Inayat Baig, 82, a resident of Beed, said: “When Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) proposed to shift my son from Mumbai’s Arthur Road Prison to Pune’s Yerawada Central Prison, my son and I had opposed this move as we were afraid he had a threat to his life in the Pune jail. In June 2012, alleged terror operative Qateel Siddiqui was murdered inside the high-security Anda Cell. But notwithstanding our opposition, he was moved to the Anda Cell…”
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In his letter to Inamdar, he added, Himayat Baig alleged that he “barely survived” the assault by a goon on February 19.
“A medical examination should be conducted on my son. Also, an inquiry should be conducted into the alleged incident and the guilty should be brought to book. At the same time, my son be provided protection from the goons who assaulted him,” Inayat Baig said in the application.
Inamdar, on the other hand, said a delegation of social activists from the city would meet Additional Director General of Police-Prisons Meeran Borwankar and request her to independently probe the issue.
Police Inspector (Crime), Yerwada, V T Sonde however said there was no assault on Baig.
“After the father met me and submitted the complaint application, I personally visited the prison and found out that there was no assault as alleged by him (Himayat Baig). He is lodged in the Anda Cell and no other prisoner can even go near him. He also does not have any injury on his body. The jail administration has also denied any such assault,” said Sonde, adding that an FIR could not be registered in the circumstances.
When asked if he met Baig inside the prison and recorded his statement, Sonde replied in the negative.
No communication with Baig since he was shifted to Yerawada, says family
Himayat Baig’s family has claimed that ever since he was shifted to Yerawada prison on December 6, they had been allowed no communication with him. The family said not only they stopped receiving letters from Baig but the jail administration had also denied them any meeting. “Himayat used to write to us very frequently when he was in Arthur Road Prison in Mumbai.
We would get at least one or two letters every months. He was shifted to Pune on December 6. We received his last letter a couple of days later. Since then, we have not received any letter from him. The latest communication that came to Anjum Inamdar was in the form of a smuggled letter. We suspect the jail authorities are not allowing his letters to come out,” said Tariq Baig, brother of the accused.
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