"Judge sahib, woh rassi abhi tak nahin bani jo Maqbool ko phaansi laga sake..." (Judge sahib, nobody has the rope which could hang Maqbool), he is said to have proclaimed in the court­ room when the death sentence was pronounced on him-for the first time in 1968. The man sentenced to death was Mohammed Maqbool Bhatt-murderer, spy, terrorist from Pakistan.

Barely four months after his boast, he slipped deftly out of the noose and escaped from Central Jail, Srinagar. It is said that when the news of his escape broke, the sentencing Magistrate fainted in the courtroom.

Eight years later he returned to India with the object of recruiting volunteers from the State of Jammu and Kashmir who were to be imparted training in Pakistan in sabotage and subversion.

 

On June 7, 1976, Maqbool and two associates armed with stenguns, revolvers and hand grenades are alleged to have robbed a bank in Langate in Hindwara, Baramullah. They are also alleged to have killed the bank manager. Maqbool was arrested. The other activists fled to the United Kingdom.

Bhatt was lodged in the Central Jail, Srinagar. He was served with the earlier execution warrant of death sentence. The date of execution was fixed for July 24, 1976. He is still alive.

Maqbool Bhatt is one of those rare prisoners who have been twice sentenced to death. He is also the one to have moved the Court seeking transfer from the "death cell" to an ordinary one, while still under the sentence of death. And in several other ways, he is an interesting subject of study:

He smokes Wills King size cigarettes; his lawyer gets them for him: He relishes Kashmiri food; his lawyer has it cooked for him. He does not like the "death cell"; his lawyer gets a judgement in his favour.

His mercy petition has been pending before the President of India since July 25, 1977. The Supreme Court, meanwhile, stayed the execution of the death sentence, on April 11, 1983.

Mohammed Maqbool.Bhatt was sentenced to death in 1968 by a special judge of Jammu and Kashmir. On July 23, 1976, he was transferred to Tihar Central Jail and confined in a "block of cell in Ward 18: On September 13, 1979, he filed a petition for removal of fetters and for bringing an end to his solitary confinement in Ward 18. On January 2, 1980, the Court ordered the removal of fetters but upheld his confinement in Ward 18.

On April 27, 1981,'Bhatt was transferred to Ward 16, known as the 'death cell' or 'condemned cell'. In a petition filed in the High Court of Delhi, Bhatt has interestingly described himself as being a "frog in a well" in the inner cell where he is locked up. He has further stated that he is "unable to see anything except a small patch of sky through the skylight of the outer cell. . . The inner cell . . . has an open lavatory and a concrete bathing tub within this space thus. . . rendering the whole area into a bathroom; a stinking smell emanating from the... open lavatory and the whole place being virtually turned into a breeding spot for flies and mosquitoes... the summer heat turns the cell into a hot oven. . ."

In its judgement, delivered on August 6,1982, the Court observed that in view of the mercy petition pending before the President, Bhatt cannot be classed as one 'under sentence of death' and therefore cannot be confined apart from other prisoners. The Court held that his transfer to the death cell on April 27, 1981, is -"arbi­trary and illegal".

Consequently, Bhatt was shifted to Ward l--originally earmarked for "high security risk prisoners". According to sources in the Tihar Jail, this is an 'illustrious ward' which has housed 'famous people' like Charles Shobraj, Dharam Teja and defence personnel involved in espionage during the 1965 war. He is lodged there to date.