Jailbreak bid case: accused cry torture by cops

Five Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts accused, who were on Monday sent to another three days of police remand in the failed Sabarmati jailbreak attempt case, complained of "torture" by police.

Five Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts accused, who were on Monday sent to another three days of police remand in the failed Sabarmati jailbreak attempt case, complained of "torture" by police.

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Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra, while allowing the application of the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), which sought further custody of the five accused, ordered a medical check-up of the accused and asked to place the report before the court on the next day of the hearing, which is fixed on March 14.

On Monday, on the completion of the five days remand, the crime branch produced the five accused before the magistrate, where their lawyer Javed Khan Pathan raised the issue of alleged "torture" by the crime branch officers, while the accused were in their custody.

"In their effort to extract a suitable confessional statement, the investigating officers had physically and mentally tortured all the five accused," alleged Pathan.

Other four accused Mufti Abubashar, Mohammad Ismail, Nadeem Saiyed and Iqbal Sheikh also accused the police of torture.

A daring escape plan had came to light on February 10 when jail authorities stumbled upon the tunnel, what was then, a 26-feet-long tunnel, inside barrack No 4 called 'Chhota Chakkar' of Sabarmati jail, where 14 of the 68 Ahmedabad serial blasts case accused were lodged.

Remands of the accused were sought for custodial interrogation, following which the crime branch officials found that the tunnel dug by serial blasts case undertrials was 214-feet long instead of the original assessment of it being only 26-feet long.