Need for air tunnel choked blasts accused's escape plans

A week after the discovery of secret tunnel in Sabaramati jail, the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) has interrogated all the 14 accused lodged in barrack 4/2 of ‘Chotta Chakkar’.

During the interrogation, it was revealed that the Ahmedabad serial blasts’ accused were planning to dig a deeper tunnel in order to reach the rear side of the wall, which is 21-feet-long. They had already covered ‘Chotta Chakkar’ area and the 8-feet-long wall.
They still had to dig a distance of 50-feet further to cross the 21-feet-long wall.

However, for this they needed to make provision for air supply into the tunnel and was therefore contemplating of digging one more tunnel. The accused were planning to dig another tunnel as the previous one was too small and they could have died out of suffocation, said AK Sharma, joint commissioner of police, DCB.

Earlier, cops suspected that the accused wanted to access the main drainage line to escape. “We now are confirmed that they were planning to escape from the backside of the jail premises,” Sharma added.

According to police, the masterminds behind the tunnel — Hafiz, Shahdul and Shibli — had destroyed three banana plants during the construction of the tunnel. It also came to light that Shibli was trying to teach Arabic to the other 54 accused and Hafiz was fond of gardening.

Meanwhile, the state-level committee formed to probe the case was present on the jail premises for two hours on Tuesday. The team had visited the jail on Monday as well. A special court presided by Judge Jyotsnaben Yagnik, has also granted permission to officials to interrogate the remaining 42 accused in the case.

Owner-less cellphones
The cops are yet to track the IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) number. However, according to the officials, the accused had made maximum calls to someone in Amraiwadi. Also, the other inmates too made calls from the same phone to different places.