Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Within 72 hours of getting bail from Madras High Court in an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case, a Muslim prisoner was again arrested by the Race Course police of Coimbatore city on Friday under the same provisions. He has now been slapped with the charge of possessing drawings of the ISIS flag in his prison cell.
Even after getting bail from the high court on December 12, 30-year-old Mustaheen of Manickampalayam in Erode district remained in the Coimbatore central prison ostensibly for completion of paperwork. According to a complaint lodged by S. Sivarajan, jailor of Coimbatore prison, with the Race Course police on December 13, the officer and other staff spotted the “incriminating material” in the cell of Mustaheen during a surprise check conducted at the prison cell of the convict on November 27, a report in The Indian Express said on Saturday.
Mustaheen has been incarcerated in the high-security block of the Coimbatore prison since July 27, 2022, on the charge of allegedly conspiring to kill members of Hindu organisations. The new FIR registered by the Race Course police said the accused resisted the jail officials’ attempts to enter his cell and check his belongings. After overpowering him, officials frisked him and found a drawing of the ISIS flag in his pocket. He had used a piece of paper given to him to write petitions to draw the flag, police said.
Sources in the prison department were quoted in the report as saying that the accused had allegedly threatened warders that he would destroy the prison complex once he got out of the prison on bail.
A division bench of Justices S.S. Sundar and Sunder Mohan of the Madras High Court in its order granting bail to Musthaheen on December 12 questioned whether the killing of Hindu religious leaders by itself would constitute a terrorist act under UAPA and said the issue was debatable, the report said.