COPS SEEK SIGNATURE ON PLAIN PAPER

Muslim groups in Rajasthan have alleged that over a dozen persons accused of carrying out and conspiring serial blasts in the May 2008 in Jaipur were being kept at the Central Jail without basic amenities violating the Jail Manual and forced to make fresh confession despite the completion of investigation. A five-member delegation of Muslim groups representing the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) met Jail Superintendent Otta Ram Rohin earlier this week to register their protest against the treatment being meted out to the inmates even though their alleged role in the blasts is yet to be established and the trial in the main case is yet to start. One of the accused has complained that the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials, being given access to the inmates in the jail, are compelling them to put signatures on plain papers.