March 1993 Mumbai blasts convict lynched in Maharashtra's Kolhapur jail

A convict in the March 1993 Mumbai blasts case was allegedly lynched by five undertrial inmates inside the Kolhapur Central Jail, the police said on Sunday, 2 June.

Kolhapur superintendent of police Mahendra Pandit, who confirmed the incident, told the media that the convict, Mohammed Ali Khan, 59, a.k.a. Munna, of Mumbai, was pounced upon by five other inmates facing serious charges under the MCOCA.

The incident happened around dawn when all the prisoners were going for a bath in the prison situated at Kalamba.

According to The Free Press Journal report, an argument with other inmates over taking a bath in the bathroom area of the jail resulted in the attack on Khan alias Manoj Kumar Bhawarlal Gupta.

A heated quarrel followed by a huge brawl reportedly erupted among the inmates and in a fit of rage, the five undertrials yanked a manhole cover, and repeatedly pounded Munna on the head, leading to his death.

Soon afterwards, the jail authorities and Kolhapur's Rajwada police station teams, which rushed there, took charge of the assailants and arrested them under various charges, including murder, rioting and other offences.

The accused were identified as -- Rituraj Inamdar, Deepak Khot, Shanker Chavan, Saurabh Siddha, and Pratik Patil.

The police and jail authorities are probing the exact causes behind the ruckus inside the jail premises that led to the death of Munna, who was serving life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts in which 257 people were killed.

With IANS inputs