A mobile phone recovered from a toilet in a jail barrack of Nainital jail during a surprise inspection by the jail administration on Friday has landed the jail staffers in a tizzy
Things are really worrisome for the jail officers as reports of the under-trial prisoners and convicts using cell phones from inside their cells keep pouring in at regular intervals, said a senior jail officer posted in the prison in Dehradun.
Notably, over 100 hard-core criminals are now being kept in various jails of the state. In the past, threat phone calls by the criminals for ransom have been reported from various jails, including those in Haridwar and Dehradun.
The recovery of a mobile phone from the Nainital jail has come as a shock as the jail administration claimed to have taken a string of measures to stop the inmates from using such phones.
This is particularly so as some inmates of the high-security jail were found running their crime syndicates through mobile phones.
Based on some authentic inputs, jailor Nainital jail I A Khan had been directed to conduct surprise inspections at various barracks of the jail.
A team led by Khan conducted inspection of all the five barracks of the jail on Friday morning during which the mobile phone was recovered from a toilet. Inmates were later questioned, but no one claimed the phone. Subsequently, Khan registered a complaint and a case under appropriate sections of Jail Act-1894 was registered against unidentified persons in Tallital police station, said the police station in-charge.
In Nainital jail, around 100 inmates are living in five separate barracks. When this correspondent approached the jailor Khan over phone for details, he refused to say anything while asking him to contact his seniors. One official said that this kind of operation will continue from time to time.
When queried over the matter, IG Jail PVK Prasad said that jail officers have been strictly instructed to ensure that no inmate uses mobile phone from inside the jail. “Such surprise inspections would continue in the barracks of the jails. Besides, jammers would be installed soon in various jails,” he added.