Maha Home Minister visits Arthur Road jail, meets Kasab

MUMBAI: As you sow so shall you reap -- this was the response of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab when Maharashtra opposition leader Eknath Khadse asked the 26/11 convict how he was feeling at the Arthur Road Jail here.

Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil, accompanied by Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Khadse today visited the jail here, where Kasab is lodged.

"The Leader of Opposition asked him (Kasab) how was he feeling. He replied that 'jaisa boya, waisa kata (I have reaped what I sowed)," Patil told reporters later.

"More than this, I also did not want to speak (to Kasab)," Patil said.

The minister said he found the jail overcrowded. "It has a capacity of 781 inmates but in reality, around 2,000 prisoners are lodged here," Patil said.

The staff strength at the jail is also less than one-third of the sanctioned strength, the minister said.

"We will shift some of them to the new Taloja jail which has come up in adjoining Raigad district," he said.

The state government would also come up with a policy on jail security in view of the towers that have come up in the vicinity of the jail, he added.