Maharashtra Police today informed the Bombay High Court that a 70-year-old 1993 bomb blasts convict had been shifted from Kolhapur Central prison to Nashik Jail on medical ground.
Taking this statement on record, a bench headed by Justice S C Dharmadhikari disposed of a petition filed by the prisoner, Mohammed Kasam Lajpuria alias Mechanic Chacha, seeking transfer from Kolhapur jail to any prison in Mumbai, Thane or Nashik.
When the petition came up for hearing, police informed the court through the public prosecutor that the prisoner had already been shifted and nothing survives in the petition.
Accordingly, the bench disposed of the matter.
The counsel for the petitioner, Farhana Shah, pleaded that the convict was totally confined to a wheel-chair/bed as he suffered from physical disability and various ailments, such as lumbar canal stenosis and cervical spondalitis. He had also got a paralytic stroke earlier and was completely dependent on others for his daily routine jobs, she told the court.
However, the authorities had turned down his plea on August 10 through a letter, which his lawyer produced before the court.
Lajpuria was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment under TADA (P) Act after he was found guilty of participating in the landing of arms and ammunition at Dighi coast in nearby Raigad district, prior to the 1993 serial bomb blasts in which 257 persons were killed and more than 700 injured.
