These drafts have been encashed, according to the records of the Overseas Branch of the State Bank of India. The one, amounting to Rs. 22,831.14 was encashed on March 12, 1982. According to infor­mation available, the draft was encashed by the then Superintendent of Tihar Jail on the basis of an authority letter from Maqbool Bhatt.

A prisoner, ironically, is not allowed to keep large sums of money with him. It was difficult to ascertain whether Maqbool actually used the money encashed or whether it is in the safe custody of the jail authorities as per rules.

Mohammed Maqbool Bhatt was born on February 18, 1938, in Trehgam in district Kupwara (earlier Baramullah) in Jammu and Kashmir. He is the son of Ghulam Qadir Bhatt. A graduate, Maqbool speaks English, Kashmiri, Punjabi, and Persian. He was a journalist by profession and edited Anjum, an Urdu weekly from Peshawar.

Maqbool's parents are dead. The only living family member is his younger brother, Ghulam Nabi Bhatt who lives in Srinagar. Their residential address, however, is recorded as 2508-K, Clock Tower, Peshawar, Pakistan.

Maqbool Bhatt is suffering from piles for over two years. He has complained that he is being refused medically recommended surgery and is being fed on laxative piles (Dulcolase) and application of haemorrahoidal ointment.

Being overtaken inexorably by age and living constantly in the shadow of death, Maqbool Bhatt has perhaps himself forgotten his words of 15 years ago: "Judge Sahib, woh rassi abhi tak nahin bani jo Maqbool ko phaansi laga sake..." (Judge sahib, nobody has the    rope which could hang Maqbool).The President of India has. We wanted to talk to this man called Maqbool Bhatt. . . .