Journalism of Courage
Shakti Mills gangrape accused Siraj Khan went missing for a short period of time on Thursday,as his whereabouts could not be confirmed,sparking panic among Thane jail authorities as well as the Mumbai Crime Branch. The air was cleared soon and officials said a clerical error in his production warrant perhaps caused the confusion,although the incident is still being investigated.
According to official sources,the four accused in the August 22 Shakti Mills gangrape case were to be produced in sessions court for the ongoing trial of the case. Around 2.45 pm,the court officials called out the names of all four accused to mark their presence,but only three Qasim Sheikh,Salim Ansari and Vijay Jadhav responded. The court asked special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam about the whereabouts of the fourth accused.
Mumbai photojournalist gangrape: Those 3 hours
I asked the same to the Crime Branch officers who had brought the rest of the accused to the court,and they said that Khan had never been in their custody in the first place,and that he was in the Thane Central Jail. However,the (Thane) jail authorities had responded to his production warrant stating that he was in the custody of the Crime Branchs Unit 3. I then informed the court that Khan could not be accounted for and suggested that the superintendent of the jail be summoned to clarify, said Nikam.
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The three accused who were brought to court are in the Crime Branchs custody in connection with the probe into the gangrape of telephone operator on July 31 in the Shakti Mills compound. Khan,a co-accused in the gangrape of a photojournalist on August 22,was in judicial custody in Thane jail.
Meanwhile,reports of Khan going missing spread fast and wide among the Mumbai Crime Branch,and some officers lamented the fact that all their hard work would go down the drain. However,within half an hour,Thane Jail authorities confirmed Khan was very much in their custody. Nikam said there was a communication error between the two authorities (Thane jail and Mumbai Crime Branch).
Since the other three accused were in police custody,at some level,an assumption was made that Khan is in police custody too,while he was in jail premises throughout the day. The jail authorities will check at what level the assumption was made and conveyed to Nikam. There seems to have been some confusion owing to the fact that three of the accused are in police custody while one is in judicial custody. We are checking further, DIG (Prisons) Swati Sathe said.
The court has now asked the jail superitendent to be present in court on Friday to clarify over the status of Khans custody.
Securing Shakti Mills will cost Rs 1.58 crore
The PWD on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that the total estimated cost for clearing and securing the Shakti Mills compound (above) in Mahalaxmi would be Rs 1.58 crore. The department,however,told the court that they will find out demolition techniques that may bring down the cost.
Earlier during the hearing of a debt case of the mill,the High Court had directed the official liquidator (custodian of the mill) for securing the premises with the help of government agencies in the wake of the gangrape of a photojournalist there. The court on Thursday asked the official liquidator to issue a tender notice and begin the process for immediate removal of the undergrowth. Amicus curie Naushad Engineer told the court that a corpus of Rs 1.5 crore was available with the liquidator after paying off the dues of the erstwhile synthetic yarn mill. ENS
