Inmate gaga about Salem’s radio

The plea of a 2008 Malegaon blast accused to be allowed the use of a transistor inside prison on the grounds that mafia don Abu Salem is being allowed to use one has alerted the special MCOCA court.

The court has now sought a report from the Taloja Jail on why Salem is permitted to use the transistor inside the jail. The order was issued by the court on Saturday after one of the accused in the Malegaon 2008 blast case, Sudhakar Udaybhan Dwivedi, alias Dayanand Pandey, alias Shankaracharya, filed an application seeking permission to use a transistor inside the jail.

Dwivedi made the application through his counsel, R. U. Jha, when the accused had made a for- mal appearance in court. Mr Jha said, “My client filed the application after he came to know that the 1993 blast accused Salem uses his personal radio in prison as his medium of entertainment. All these accused, who are arrested by the police in the bomb blast case, are kept in a common cell or barrack, and Salem is the only accused who has one.”

“The court asked the jail authorities to ascertain if Salem is using his radio in the prison with the permission of the jail authorities or with the court’s permission, and if the court had allowed him access to the radio, whether it was restricted to a certain period,” said Mr Jha.

When contacted, Salem’s advocate said his client had got the court’s permission for the radio. “We sought permission from the Tada court in 2007,” he said.