Cops alerted after phones seized in jail

PATIALA: Authorities of New District Jail in Nabha have alerted narcotics division of the state police to keep a close watch on 12 Nigerians, who have recently been shifted from Ropar Jail. The move has come after nine mobiles phones were seized from the possession of the inmates. The authorities also cautioned that the accused could be running a racket from inside the prison they were in before.

The inmates, who were shifted to Ropar Jail the day before, are sentenced under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) Act. They were arrested during various raids across the state and in Delhi.

It has been learned that Nabha police have registered a case against them for illegally possessing mobile phones. In its report, the authorities of the New District Jail told state police department about the possibility of a drug racket being run from inside Ropar Jail.

“At the time when the 12 undertrials were being shifted to New District Jail from Ropar, I ordered a thorough check of their belongings. It was then that we found a mobile phone hidden in the clothes of one of the inmates. This triggered us to carry out an extensive search. Therefore, we checked other belongings of all inmates and seized nine mobile phones from them,” said deputy superintendent of jails Ramandeep Singh Bhangu.

“Despite searching several times, we failed to find SIM cards. However, this does not mean that the devices were not being used,” he added.