Mid Day

Mumbai, May 22: Reacting to a report ‘Save Our Souls’ published in MiD DAY on March 31, 2007, about nine 1993 blast convicts being tortured by another convict, Mustafa Dossa, three convicts yesterday beat the MiD DAY reporter, who wrote the article, on the jail premises.

Yesterday, around 2 pm, convict Abdul Gani Turk met reporter Anand Holla outside the TADA court after the day’s proceedings, and threatened him with dire consequences for “writing false stories” about his boss Mustafa Dossa.

The reporter told him to post his response to MiD DAY if he wanted the convicts’ version to be carried. At 2.30 pm, when the reporter left the registrar’s office, Turk was lying in wait with Salim Mira Shaikh and Parvez Qureshi.  

On seeing Holla, Shaikh began abusing him. As Holla was trying to walk away, Qureshi and Salim began hitting and kicking him. All this happened in presence of 10-12 policemen, who stood like mute bystanders.

After 15 seconds, some cops came to his rescue. An FIR has been lodged at NM Joshi Marg police station.

What led to the Assault

The convicts’ outburst came as the reporter had not heeded to their demands that MiD DAY carry a denial of the ‘Save our Souls’ report, which they said was untrue.

The report had mentioned how Dossa was allegedly exploiting nine convicts in Arthur Road jail.

All nine sent a signed letter denying the allegations and claiming they never wrote the previous letter on which the MiD DAY report was based.

The letter stated, “You have not only harmed our social image at large but also undermined the role of judiciary and so also the working of jail administration.” They had demanded an unconditional apology, threatening legal action.