Sushilkumar Shinde inspects Mumbai's Arthur Road jail

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Saturday visited the Arthur Road Central Jail in Mumbai, where the 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab was lodged for four years, to inspect the facilities and security measures in the prison.

Interacting with media persons outside the Arthur Road jail, Shinde said, “I have decided to inspect all the major jails to review the security measures, and I started it from here. It is a very important and old jail. After this, I will visit Delhi's Tihar jail, West Bengal and Chennai. I want to see all the jails situated in metro cities.

“The government has been providing some financial assistance for jail reforms till 2009. We are trying to restart that assistance, and I have requested the Finance Ministry to allot funds for this,” said Shinde.

The home minister admitted that there is lack of facilities in the jail as more than 2,300 prisoners have been kept instead of 802, what is the actual capacity of the Arthur Road jail.

“The Centre has decided not to recover Rs21 crore from the Maharashtra government on account of deployment of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at Arthur Road Jail here to guard Ajmal Kasab. The state should spend the money for prison reforms,” said Shinde.

Kasab was lodged in Arthur Road jail, where the trial of 26/11 terror attack case also took place, for four years, before he was shifted to Pune's Yerawada jail for execution last November.