Explain why SIMI counsel wasn’t allowed to meet clients: Court to Bhopal jail chief
The chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court on Thursday ordered Bhopal central jail superintendent to appear before the court and explain why the counsel of suspected SIMI activists lodged in jail was not allowed to meet his clients in jail recently.
The chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court on Thursday ordered Bhopal central jail superintendent to appear before the court and explain why the counsel of suspected SIMI activists lodged in jail was not allowed to meet his clients in jail recently.
The CJM court had on November 8 permitted counsel of the jailed SIMI men Parvez Alam to meet his five clients for 20 minutes in jail, but Alam was denied entry the next day. On November 10, the state government had filed a revision petition in the district and sessions court challenging the CJM court order. The petition, however, was dismissed on November 11, allowing Alam to meet his clients on November 12.
Alam was again barred entry on November 12 as the jail staff asked him to fill a form declaring that he wanted to meet his relatives in the jail.
Submitting about the misconduct on November 12, Alam had maintained that Gandhinagar police station was yet to take action against the central jail staff five days after lodging a complaint against them.
The counsel alleged that may be he was being purportedly denied entry so that the undertrials don’t get to disclose security loopholes aiding the jailbreak on October 31. “Relatives of two of my clients Irfan and Adil have submitted affidavits before the court stating that they wanted to meet me,” Alam told HT.
“I had told the court that relatives of Irfan and Adil said the two were not even allowed to come out of the cell like other inmates since October 31 midnight. They said the two were forced to make do with a single bedsheet and a blanket after the alleged jailbreak,” Alam added.
Meanwhile, the hearing in the 2014 case of anti-national sloganeering by 17 jailed SIMI operatives took place via video conferencing in the CJM court. However, only two out of the 14 SIMI undertrials in Bhopal central jail (three other accused were among the eight killed in the alleged encounter on October 31) were produced before the court via video conferencing.