Data accessed by The Indian Express from the state jails department, regarding the recovery of mobile phones in 26 prisons in PunjabAs agitated prisoners clashed with the police inside Ludhiana Central Jail Thursday leaving one inmate dead in police firing, several videos of the mayhem started floating on the social media. The videos were shot on the mobile phones allegedly by the inmates and one of them reportedly even went live on Facebook.
The viral videos of the clash inside the prison, which left at least six inmates and an equal number of policemen injured, once again exposed the nexus between officials and inmates in Punjab jails where the latter have easy and open access to mobile phones and internet.
Data accessed by The Indian Express from the state jails department, regarding the recovery of mobile phones in 26 prisons in Punjab, shows that of 491 phones seized this year in six months (till June), maximum 161 were recovered from Ludhiana Central Jail.
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It is followed by Kapurthala Model Jail (81), Amritsar Central Jail (37), Bathinda Central Jail (31), Ferozepur Central Jail (31), Patiala Central Jail (30), and Faridkot Model Jail (21).
Maximum 129 phones were recovered in the month of January. The only central jail from where no phone has been recovered in six months (till June this year) is Gurdaspur.
Law to deal with mobile phones in jails
It was in September 6, 2016 that the Punjab government had issued a notification, amending the Prisons Act, 1984 (in its application to state of Punjab) and added section 52-A (1), specifically prohibiting usage of mobile phones in jails and also making it a cognizable offence. Though the amendment was passed as a Bill in March 2011 itself, it was notified in 2016.
The notification said that as per the amendment – to be called the Prisons (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2011 – section 52-A (1) has been inserted, which reads, “If any prisoner is found guilty of possessing, operating or using a mobile phone or their component parts like SIM card, memory card, battery or charger or if the prisoner or any other person assists or abets or instigates in the supply thereof, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term, not exceeding one year or with fine, not exceeding Rs 25,000 or with both; and if the mobile phone is used for committing an offence inside or outside the jail’s premises by a prisoner, the imprisonment shall not be less than one year, which may extend to three years or with fine, not exceeding Rs 40,000 or with both. In case of non-payment of fine, the imprisonment may be further extended upto one year. (2) The offence committed under sub-section (1), shall be cognizable and shall be triable by the court of the Magistrate First Class.”
The section was added following the increasing menace of mobile phones in jails in Punjab but has failed to curb the problem even after three years.
Currently, the inmates, when caught with mobile phones, are booked under section 52A (1) of the Prisons Act. The bigger question, however, is how the inmates manage to smuggle phones inside barracks, which, according to sources, is not possible without connivance of the jail staff.
Punjab jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa confirmed that till now this year, maximum phones have been recovered from Ludhiana Central Jail. Asked how inmates manage to smuggle in the phones, “Once jail staff recovers phones, it is the work of local police to interrogate the accused. It is the work of the police to find how phones were smuggled inside.”
Inspector Sulakhan Singh, SHO, Division No. 7 police station, under which the Ludhiana Central Jail falls, said that an FIR is registered only when jail staff writes to them requesting the same. “We file an FIR for phone recovery only after receiving a written request from jail authorities. If there is any loophole or if the jail authorities go easy, or pick and choose in nominating the accused, then we can’t do anything. It is their work to inform us whenever a phone is recovered”.
Ludhiana DCP Ashwani Kapoor said that an FIR has to be registered at the first instance itself when the phone is recovered. “Even if phone is recovered for first time from an inmate, he must be booked,” the DCP added.
