Security cover for MCOCA court judge after threat call

COPS EXAMINING PCO RECORDS

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: Special judge Y D Shinde, who is handling cases of the Indian Mujahideen and the Abhinav Bharat’s terror suspects, on Thursday complained that he had received a threat call from an unknown person. Following the threat, the city police have provided security cover to the judge. No FIR was registered till late evening.

Shinde is handling at least half-a-dozen sensitive cases in the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court. Confirming the threat call to Shinde, city police chief D Sivanandan said on Thursday evening, “Some unknown person called him up from a PCO. He has given a letter to the police and officers of inspector general and deputy IG rank met him.
He has been provided with a security cover.’’

The police chief added that extra security cover will be provided to Shinde, if required.

A senior official from the ATS said they had received a letter from Shinde. “We are examining the PCO’s call records. The matter is under investigation,’’ the officer said. He refused to elaborate on how many calls were made to Shinde and what the callers said.

Last week, Shinde had rejected the bail plea of Malegaon 2008 blast suspect, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a member of Abhinav Bharat.

It is learnt that the callers had alleged that Shinde was discriminating among the accused and had not released some terror suspects. The trial in Malegaon blast and the Indian Mujahideen cases are yet to begin.

The Times of India, July 17, 2009