Mumbai: The Superintendent of Bombay Central prison Swati Sathe, today (Dec 13, 2004) assured the special court, conducting retrial into Best Bakery carnage, that all necessary precautions were being taken to safeguard the security of the accused lodged in the jail in the wake of media reports of alleged threats to them from the underworld.

Designated Judge Abhay Thipsay called Sathe to the court and she appeared before him in the afternoon. The jailor told the judge that keeping the accused secure was uppermost in her mind.

Outside the court, Sathe denied that plans were foiled to kill the Best Bakery accused by the underworld by poisoning their food.

She said that there was no such threat to the accused and that they were safe in the prison.

According to media reports, underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim had conspired to kill the 17 accused to take revenge for those killed in the Best Bakery two years ago.

The reports alleged that a 1993 Mumbai blast accused belonging to Dawood gang had planned to poison their food after befriending them but the plan was foiled and the accused were moved to a high security zone.

Maharashtra DIG (prisons) Rashmi Shukla, talking said yesterday (Dec 12, 2004), had also denied such reports about threat to the accused. "The accused are safe and are lodged in a cell, which is segregated from others," she said.