Razakar leader sought money to take his ‘essential’ puff

Documents indicate that the Indian Army and Hyderabad - Dn government took note of Razavi’s heavy smoking

S M Qasim Razavi, the infamous leader of the Razakars, who was imprisoned in Trimulgherry Jail, a British prison in Secunderabad constructed in the 1850s, was initially confined for 20 hours a day in his cell.

It was a time he was facing two important trials, the Shoebullah Khan murder and Bibi Nagar cases. Wielding immense influence only a couple of years before, Razavi during imprisonment in 1950 had requested the authorities that he be allowed to draw money from his frozen bank accounts for cigarettes.

In a letter handwritten in 1950, Razavi informs the jail superintendent, “I have some money deposited in the Hyderabad State Bank. The exact amount I do not remember, nor have I any papers or cheque with me. This much I remember that there is money enough to meet my petty expenses in jail, such as cigarettes and other needs.”