The Central Prison authorities here have refused to allow 26/11 accused Faheem Ansari to read Tehelka magazine despite court's permission, prompting the judge to hold an inquiry whether restrictions can be legally imposed on reading material provided to prisoners.
Faheem's lawyer Shahid Azmi yesterday presented the latest issue of the magazine in the trial court and requested judge ML Tahaliyani to allow the accused to read it in his
cell.
The judge forwarded the magazine to the jail authorities with instructions that Faheem may be given the periodical to read in his cell.
However, the jailor sent the magazine back to the court with a forwarding note that Tehelka was not allowed to be read inside jail because it did not appear in the list of publications that were permitted in the prison for reading.
Faheem's lawyer Shahid Azmi said the law requires that only those magazines which were unsuitable for reading should be disallowed in prisons, but Tehelka did not fall in this category.
Judge Tahaliyani said he would hold an inquiry to find out whether jail authorities could prevent prisoners from reading the magazine in accordance with law.
Faheem is interested in reading magazines like Tehelka while lone Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab likes to read story books in Urdu on history and fiction, Azmi said.
Faheem is charged with providing maps to terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba for carrying out Mumbai terror attacks, while Kasab is facing the charge of killing 166 persons on November 26 last year.
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