Prisoners at Mumbai’s high-security Arthur Road Jail are usually allowed to celebrate their birthday by ordering a 1 kg cake from a state jail bakery. Sometimes, jail guards and other inmates are also allowed to join the revelry on humanitarian grounds since none of this is permitted under jail rules. But Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist captured alive during the 26/11 attack, will get none of these privileges when he turns 22 on Sunday according to jail records.

Firstly, Kasab, who was born on September 13, 1987, according to jail records, is a high-risk prisoner lodged in a special, solitary cell which was refurbished exclusively to house him.

Secondly, he has no savings, unlike other prisoners who earn money inside the jail by working, to order a cake. Moreover, there is hardly any favourable sentiment for him among jail guards and officials to want to wish him.

“Under the jail manual, there are no provisions for allowing any inmate or convict to celebrate his birthday in prison,” said Jail Superintendent Rajendra Dhamne.

“However, in many cases on humanitarian grounds, we allow inmates to celebrate their birthday with jail guards and other inmates. The inmate can order a 1 kg cake from the jail canteen, but he needs to order it well in advance.”

Four jails in Maharashtra — Thane, Yerawada (Pune), Nashik and Nagpur— have in-house bakeries along with other small-scale industrial operations.

“If the inmate places an order for a cake, we send the request to the Thane prison bakery from where it is delivered on the mentioned day,” said Dhamne adding that the variety available is limited and prisoners could order only from a list of existing flavours.

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