Mangaluru: The Delhi Police has told the Court that Yasin Bhatkal, a death row convict is planning a prison break due to which he has been kept in a high-surveillance ward at Tihar Jail.
The response came from the police after Bhatkal’s lawyer M S Khan claimed that the terrorist was kept in solitary confinement in Tihar jail because he was awarded capital punishment by the Special National Investigation Agency Court in Hyderabad.
However, squashing this argument, the Delhi police told that in wake of intelligence inputs that hinted at an escape plan by the Indian Mujahideen founder, he has been kept in high-security ward. Further, the police also told that there is no scope for solitary confinement in Tihar jail.
Bhatkal, who is facing 30-40 cases pending against him in the courts is the mastermind behind several blasts, the most gruesome ones being Mumbai train blasts in 2006 and explosions in Bengaluru, Pune and Delhi in 2010. He is also accused of bombing Delhi High Court in 2011.
Ahmed Siddabappa Zarrar, alias Yasin Bhatkal had risen to become the IM’s key executioner and took charge of the organisation’s India operations after founders Iqbal and Riyaz Bhatkal fled to Pakistan in 2008 after the Batla House encounter in Delhi. He was arrested from the India-Nepal border in Bihar’s Raxaul town in August 2013. The terror mastermind hails from Bhatkal district in Karnataka.
