NEW DELHI: Mohammad Alikhan, also known as Manojkumar Bhawarlal Gupta and Munna, was brutally assaulted and killed by five inmates inside the Kalamba jail in Kolhapur.
Munna, a notorious criminal and habitual absconder, had played a crucial role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts by escorting Tiger Memon, the prime accused, from Mumbai to Raigad for the Shekhadi landing of a large cache of arms, ammunition, hand grenades, and RDX.He also assisted in transporting the cache back to Mumbai.
Munna had completed his initial 14-year sentence and was released from prison in 2007, but the Supreme Court later enhanced his sentence to life imprisonment.
The CBI had registered a case against him under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act at the STF police station in Mumbai. Before being transferred to the Kalamba Central Jail in 2013, Munna was incarcerated in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail.
The attackers, identified as Bablu (alias Sandip Shankar Chavan), Pratik (alias Pilya Suresh Patil), Ruturaj (alias Degya Vinayak Inamdar), Sourabh Vikas Sidh, and Dipak Netaji Khot, approached Munna near the prison’s bathing well at 7.55am on Sunday and assaulted him with the concrete and metal cover of the drainage chamber. Munna suffered severe injuries and bled profusely. A prison worker who attempted to intervene was also attacked. Bablu, Pratik, and Ruturaj have been arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), while Sourabh and Dipak are in judicial custody.
The initial probe by the jail authorities has indicated that there had been long-standing animosity between the attackers and Munna.
Swati Sathe, the deputy inspector general (prisons) said: “We are yet to ascertain the motive behind the attack, but the safety of the inmates is our prime concern. There are four convicts of the Bombay serial blast case currently lodged in the Kalamba. For their safety, we will separate them from the regular inmates. If required, we will shift them to other prisons. We will also increase CCTV coverage in the prison.”