MUMBAI, June 27 -- The city's famous Arthur Road Jail has been taken to task by a court for not taking care of the dietary needs of one of its inmates. At a time when vegetarian-non-vegetarian issues are enough to spark controversies, the dietary demand this time appears to be of the more stricter kind - Jain food. A special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering) court has issued a show cause notice to the superintendent of Arthur Road Jail for failing to provide Jain food to one of the accused incarcerated in connection with the Nashik Merchant Co-operative (NAMCO) Bank fraud case. Riteshkumar Shah, an Ahmedabad-based trader, had moved a plea before the court on May 9, 2025, seeking directions to the superintendent of the Arthur Road Jail, where he is lodged at present, to provide him Jain food. Acting on his plea, the court had on May 14 passed an order, directing the jail authorities to provide Jain food to Shah. Shah did not specify in his plea what constitutes Jain food. But, it is commonly known that Jain food is strictly vegetarian cuisine based on the principle of Ahimsa (non-violence), and includes plant-based foods and excludes root vegetables like onions, potatoes, garlic, etc. "It appears that the accused is a follower of Jainism and wants the superintendent of Arthur Road Jail to provide him Jain food," stated special judge AC Daga in his May 14 order. "Considering the fact that the accused is a follower of Jainism, therefore, he is entitled to get a diet accepted by Jain religion. Accordingly, the superintendent of Arthur Road Jail is directed to provide Jain food to the accused while he is in (their) custody." The court order was duly served. However, the jail authorities still did not serve Jain food to Shah. Hence, Shah's advocate on June 24 again moved a plea, stating that his client is yet to be provided Jain food as per his religious dietary requirement. "As a result, he has been surviving solely on chapatis for more than a month, which has caused significant deterioration in his health," stated the plea. It added that the act of refusal to provide Jain food violated Shah's fundamental right to follow his religion and requested the court to issue show cause notice to the superintendent of Arthur Road Jail for not complying with the court order. After hearing the plea, special judge Raju Rote on June 24 issued a show cause notice to the superintendent of the Arthur Road Jail, ordering him to file the reply by Friday, when the matter is scheduled to come up for hearing again. This has left the jail staff baffled, worried that this might set a precedent to ask for religion-specific diets. Until now, it was vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Tomorrow it could be halal-non-halal, kosher, vegan, etc. A senior jail officer, on condition of anonymity, said that there was no provision in the Jail Manual to provide any religious food to any person. "There is no such provision in the manual to provide any specific food to inmates, like Jain food," said the officer. "Some foreign nationals lodged in our jails have problems with spicy Indian food and, therefore, we give them the food before adding chili powder and spices to it," he added. Shah, who is currently in judicial custody, is alleged to be a close associate of the alleged mastermind behind the large-scale suspicious transitions made from NAMCO Bank accounts, Mehmood Abdul Samad Bhagad, also known as 'Challenger King'. It is alleged that Shah played a key role in creating multiple shell entities using identity documents of innocent people, which in turn were used to siphon off the money withdrawn as cash from the bank accounts. The ED has also started a money-laundering investigation based on a case registered with Chawani Police Station in Malegaon, Nashik....