New Delhi: The Delhi Police’s Special Cell has claimed to have foiled an “assassination plot” by a Muslim convict in Tihar jail who allegedly wanted to execute two Hindu men lodged in the same prison, ThePrint has learnt. The two Hindu men are accused of desecrating a mosque and killing Muslims in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots.
According to sources, the convict, who is serving sentence in a 2015 case of gang rape and murder, intended to use mercury to poison the two Hindu men.
The convict had discussed the plan with two others inside the jail — one is serving sentence in a terror case for making recruitment in India for ISIS, and the other is on trial for allegedly being an ISIS operative planning attacks in Delhi and Haridwar, said sources. However, the police didn’t find any evidence to arrest these two men in the case.
To carry out the execution, the convict contacted a 35-year-old man outside the prison — using a phone — and asked him to arrange for mercury and smuggle it inside Tihar, said sources.
In the second week of January, when this man attempted to deliver the chemical element inside prison in a perfume bottle, he was intercepted and arrested by the police. The Muslim convict was also re-arrested.
An FIR was registered in the case under sections of criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder.
“We had inputs about the 35-year-old attempting to deliver mercury inside the prison. We then followed the leads and made the arrests. It is during his interrogation that this plan to assassinate two Hindu accused inside the prison by adding mercury to their food was revealed,” a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity.
“He then revealed the name of his associate inside the prison, who is a convict serving sentence. We then questioned him inside the prison and re-arrested him in this case,” the officer said.
“We have also seized the mercury from the 35-year-old man, which the men planned to put in their (Hindu men’s) tadka,” the officer added.
“The key accused in the case had named the two men during his interrogation. He also gave a statement in this regard. Following that, we took special permission from the court to question the two men, but did not find sufficient evidence to arrest them,” sources added. “Further investigation in the case is on.”
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Questions on safety of prisoners
This episode has once again raised the issue over safety of prisoners, and smuggling of mobile phones, cash and drugs inside jails.
In 2019, two instances were reported of inmates smuggling phones inside Tihar by swallowing them or hiding them in their rectum.
Asked how the convict contacted his associate outside the prison, Sandeep Goel, Director General of Police, Prisons, refused to comment.
Moreover, asked if the security inside the prison has been beefed up after this case and if the inmates have been shifted to separate jails amid fears of a clash, Goel said he did not wish to comment.
The ISIS link
During questioning, the Muslim convict arrested in the case told the police that two men — with whom he discussed the plan to kill the Hindu men — had conspired with him to eliminate them and had suggested the plan to him. The police, however, did not find any evidence of this.
One of the two men was convicted along with 18 others in a 2015 National Investigation Agency (NIA) case registered under criminal conspiracy and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), among other sections.
According to NIA, the men were part of a criminal conspiracy hatched by the ISIS to establish its base in India by recruiting Muslim youth for the proscribed terror group, by using different social media platforms.
The second man, too, is being tried in a 2016 UAPA case in which he is accused of being an ISIS operative, who conspired to carry out terror acts in the national capital and adjoining regions during Ardh Kumbh in Haridwar.
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Islam is the religion of peace. Muslims are the most tolerant and peaceful of all. How can a Muslim even think of doing such harm to someone else? This is quite clearly anti-Muslim propaganda fanned by the RSS.