Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 8 (IANS) A lawyer representing suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Qateel Mohammed Jaffer Siddiqui, who was found murdered inside his cell in Pune’s Yerawada Central Jail, said Friday that he would approach the apex court for a CBI probe into the death.

Siddiqui, an accused in the Jama Masjid shootout case of 2010, was Friday found strangled with a thin rope inside his cell in the high-security jail in Pune.

He was arrested by Delhi Police in November 2011 and was in transit remand in Pune. He was arrested for making an attempt to plant a bomb at the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati temple in Pune on the day of the German Bakery blast on Feb 13, 2010.

Siddiqui’s counsel M.S. Khan told IANS that the terror accused was found murdered on the same day when a charge sheet was filed against him in the Jama Masjid shoot-out case in a Delhi court Friday.

Khan said the murder of a terror accused in prison is impossible as such accused are kept in fool-proof security. He said there was “some conspiracy” in his client’s murder.

“I will approach the apex court for seeking direction for a CBI investigation in the matter,” said Khan. He said he does not agree with the order of the Maharashtra government which has called for a CID probe into the murder.

He said he will also try for handing over of Siddiqui’s body to his family.

Preliminary investigations suggest a gang war among members of rival mafias in the prison, which could have led to Siddiqui’s killing.

He was arrested for involvement in the Chinnaswamy Stadium blast in Bangalore besides an aborted bid to blow up the Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati temple in Pune last year.

Following the murder, security has been beefed up in several jails including Mumbai’s Arthur Road Central Jail where Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab is lodged and Raigad’s Taloja Jail where extradited don Abu Salem is lodged after he was attacked by rival gangsters in a Mumbai jail last year.