Walls tiled, paved path and commode with jet spray: Arthur Road jail is ready for Vijay Mallya

For most of this month, two cells in Barrack No 12 of Arthur Road jail have been getting a major face-lift - the flooring has been changed, tiles replaced, walls painted and bathroom refurbished. Fugitive Vijay Mallya has been resisting extradition and possible lodging in the Arthur Road jail citing poor conditions of prisons in the country. A video of the new and improved cell has been shot by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is the agency coordinating Mallya’s extradition. The top-secret video has been sent to the Ministry of External Affairs to aid in the extradition process.

The work was carried out by a contractor of the Public Works Department (PWD), Pramesh constructions. Shivkumar Patil, the contractor, confirmed to Mirror that he had worked on barrack no 12, which had been constructed to house 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab. “I have been instructed not to speak much on the issue. My workers did the job. We painted the cell and also paved the path leading to barrack no 12. We renovated the toilet and flooring too. We also painted the exteriors,” Patil told Mirror. Mallya’s defence team has argued in a London court that there is no natural light in Arthur Road jail. Patil added that a black wall in the cell has been painted white to reflect sunlight.

A PWD official said that CBI officers who had come to shoot the video on August 10 were not happy with the work and so some more sprucing up was done by August 13 and another video shot by CBI officers on August 16. “Two cells were refurbished – one in which Chhagan Bhujbal stayed and another one adjoining it. The flooring was done along with tiling of the wall. Even the bathroom fittings were changed with a new commode and a jet spray. Around 45 workers were put on the job,” he said.


PWD’s section engineer in charge of Arthur Road jail Shailesh Pol said that they had only cleaned up the place and asked us to get in touch with the executive engineer of Worli area for further details.

When Mirror contacted PWD’s executive engineer of Worli division, Sushma Gaikwad, she was not very forthcoming about the purpose of the refurbishment. “It is an administrative manner. We do lots of work for Arthur road jail as part of our job,” she said, before adding, “Who is going to stay there is not your concern.”

Rajvardhan Sinha, Special Inspector General (Prisons), South Mumbai, insisted that the work was part of standard upgradation of jails. “If you check with PWD, you will find that the government has given funds for entire renovation of prisons, wherever it is required. Under that requirement, painting of all barracks has started. Wherever ceilings had been falling, plasters have been put up. Toilets are changed. New drains are being put in many prisons like Taloja, 120 toilets are being put in Thane prison. I don’t know why only Barrack no 12 is being projected as having been spruced up. If you want to link this with a certain special purpose, then I can’t say more.”

Mallya’s complaint
Mallya is wanted in India for allegedly defaulting on Rs 9,000 crore taken from banks by his nowdefunct Kingfisher Airlines. His bail has been extended till September 12. The issue of prison conditions in India in general and that of Arthur Road jail in particular has witnessed a lot of heated arguments and counter-arguments ever since the trial began in the case in in December 2017.