Unfolding events leading to the Diwali night jailbreak by eight Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) suspects from the high security Bhopal Central Jail and their subsequent killings in an “encounter” hours later have covered the whole incident under a thick cloud of mystery.
The incident beginning from their escape from the ISO certified jail — provided with 3-layer air-tight security — to their killing on a hillock on the outskirt of Bhopal despite being “unarmed”, have given rise to the suspicion that there was something more to it than what meets the eye.
The eight fugitives, three of whom were habitual jailbreakers, had broken open their cell in the B-Block of the jail with the apparent help of the “insider” and decoy keys made out of toothbrush to escape by scaling three prison boundary walls of 28 ft, 30 ft and 32 ft heights respectively between 2.10 hr and 2.30 hrs on the intervening night of October 31-November one.
A rope fashioned out of 36 bed-sheets was used to scale the boundary walls. They killed a security guard before escaping.
After emerging out of the jail at around 4.30am, the fleeing terror suspects could surprisingly cover a distance of barely 15 km in five hours in almost on a deserted route to reach Manikhedi hillock before being surrounded and neutralised by the counter-terror commandos.
The audio clip of purported communication among the cops during the encounter suggested that the police was more eager to kill them than to capture them. Videos showing the purported encounter have also raised a question mark on the encounter.
The whole incident beginning from the jailbreak to their killing appeared to be stage managed, given holes in the police versions, said slain fugitives’ counsel Parvez Alam. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was forced to announce a judicial probe into it.
The slain suspects, Zakir Hussein, Mohammad Saliq, Amjad Khan, Mohammad Aqeel, Mujeeb Sheikh, Mehboob Gudu, Mohammad Khalid Ahmed, and Abdul Majid, faced charges of bank robbery and murder, being members of banned outfit like Simi, attempting to murder a BJP leader and bank robbery, involvement in 2008 serial blasts in Ahmedabad, murder of a security guard and plotting to kill former home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and his daughter.
History repeats itself
Earlier incident
7 members of the group escaped from a jail in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh in 2013 by scaling a 14-feet wall.
CONVICTS
1st prisoner surrendered
2nd prisoner arrested in December 2013 Barwani in MP
3rd prisoner killed in an encounter with Telangana Police on April 5, 2015
4 remaining prisoners were arrested 3 years later in February 2016 in Rourkela in Odisha
