A convict Jignesh Soni, serving life sentence in sensational Pradeep ‘Don’ murder case of Ahmedabad wrote a letter to the Prisons Department of Gujarat Police seeking permission to convert to Islam.
Jignesh who is lodge in Sabarmati Central Jail since the last six years, is the key accused in the murder case and he was arrested in 2009.
The convict, Jignesh Soni, wrote this letter after he was shifted to a barrack that had Muslim inmates more in number in the Sabarmati Central Jail. He claimed that the prisons department is torturing him. He claimed police torturing him by keeping him with ‘minorities’.
Jignesh had written to Superintendent of Prisons, R S Bhagora on May 27, 2015 stating that he wants to convert to Islam and he will make ten other Hindu prisoners file similar applications to the prisons department.
The Chief of the Prisons department, IGP TS Bisht said, “We have issued an inquiry in this matter to see if there was torture as alleged inside barrack or the convict just wanted to protest”.
The prisons authorities at Sabarmati Central Jail stated that Jignesh’s application for conversion is a ‘tantrum’ to pressurize the authorities.
According to Superintendent of Jails, Jignesh is a headstrong and dreaded criminal was on parole and he returned back to Sabarmati Central Jail on May 22. “He had formed a group comprising of four to five convicts inside the prison and he wanted to stay only with them, which could cause trouble. Therefore he and the others were shifted to different barracks”.
Bhagora claimed, “If Muslim prisoners or prison authorities either tactfully or forcefully ask him to convert he can complain, but there is no such activity going on. He claimed that if is made to stay in the same barrack with Muslims he should be allowed to convert to Islam. His grounds for conversion based only on his sharing barrack with Muslims which is illogical”.
“Though he describes his shift to this barrack as a punishment, there is no punishment meted out to anyone in any barrack”,Bhagore said.