In a shocking incident that has exposed the chinks in the security set-up at Kolhapur’s Kalamba Central Jail, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case was killed by five other inmates inside the jail premises on Sunday.

While confirming the incident, the jail officials on Monday identified the killed convict as one Manoj Kumar Bhawarlal Gupta alias Munna Gupta alias Mohammad Ali Khan (59).  He was serving a life imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

The alleged under-trial inmates who fatally attacked Gupta were identified as Prateek alias Pilya Suresh Patil, Deepak Netaji Khot, Sandeep Shankar Chavan, Rituraj Vinayak Inamdar, and Saurabh Vikas.

The accused jail inmates, who attacked Gupta, are being tried for charges under sections of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).Gupta was reportedly attacked after he entered into arguments with some under-trail jail inmates lodged at the Kolhapur jail. 

A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered in connection with  the killing of Gupta at the Juna Rajwada police station in Kolhapur.

Gupta, who was part of the group controlled by fugitive Tiger Memon, had played a key role in the landing of RDX explosives and other weapons that had arrived from Pakistan along the Dighi coast in Raigad district of coastal Konkan region. The explosives were used in the March 12 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, in which 253 people were killed and 713 others injured.   

Gupta, who had been arrested by the Special Task Force of the CBI and was tried before a special TADA court in Mumbai, had initially been lodged at the Arthur Road Jail. After his conviction, he was shifted to the Kolhapur jail.