The Maharashtra government on Wednesday informed the Bombay high court that it would check if it was feasible to shift Pune German Bakery blasts lone convict Himayat Baig could be shifted to a prison in Mumbai. Special public prosecutor Raja Thakare said that the state would have to check with Arthur Road jail authorities if Baig could be lodged in the prison in the special barracks. A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice S B Shukre has kept the matter for further hearing on October 9, 2015. The court is presently hearing the case to confirm the death sentence given to Baig, who is currently lodged in Nagpur central jail. Baig, who is attending the hearings through a video conference link that has been set up between the HC and Nagpur Central jail, had in his application said that it would be easier to interact with his lawyers and instruct them if he is shifted to Mumbai. According to the application, it was not possible to properly discuss the case with his lawyers through video conferencing.
A sessions court in 2013 had sentenced Baig to death for his role in the bomb blast inside the German Bakery in Pune on February 13, 2010, that killed 17 persons, including five foreign nationals and, injured 58 others. Baig, who was initially lodged in Pune’s Yerwada jail was ordered to be shifted to Nagpur, after he claimed that there was a threat to his life. Baig had said that he feared that his life was in danger and he may be killed like his co-accused in the case, Qateel Siddiqui, of the Indian Mujahideen, who was found murdered in his cell in Yerdwada prison in June 2012. Baig also claimed that some people had attacked him in the jail.