Two caught hurling drugs in rubber balls inside Central Jail

Nagpur: Two goons, Sheikh Wasim (26) and Tabassur Ahmed (24), were nabbed red-handed by the crime branch while tossing two rubber balls filled with marijuana into Nagpur Central Jail last week. Sources stated a mobile phone SIM, batteries and MD drug are also tossed inside in balls from near Barracks Nos 5 or 6.
The police action, which was first of its kind, has now thrown open a pandora’s box regarding the alleged illegal activities inside the jail. In 2015, five prisoners had fled from the jail after they had co-ordinated the move using mobile phones.
The Nagpur Central Jail, which had grabbed attention in July with sudden spike in Covid inside the premises with 62 jail staffers and 219 prisoners testing positive, is once again under scanner for all the wrong reasons. The action of crime branch has revealed there is a rampant consumption of narcotics and use of mobile phones inside the jail.
Two rubber balls, which were seized by crime branch, had ‘Taigar’ written on it. The balls were cut open, filled with drugs, and again sealed using strong adhesive. They were about to be thrown inside from a place near jail’s car washing centre towards Ajni square. The team of API Dileep Chandan, comprising head constable Prashant Kodape, Ajay Rode and Kripashankar Shukla, have seized mobile phones of Waseem and Ahmed before handing it over to the special cell for probe.
It is learnt every ball lobbed inside has code words like ‘Lion’, ‘Fish’ and so on. These indicate the name of the recipient prisoner. Police sources claimed Wasim was sending marijuana for his elder brother and another gangster from Dobinagar. Wasim, his brother and Ahmed were arrested around a year ago for attacking their rival over dispute about a gambling den. They were booked for attempt to murder. The three also have other cases against them.
It is learnt there is a regular demand of mobile phone batteries as at least three dreaded goons Anna, Naushad, and Sumeet are known to possess phones. “There is a no charging facility in the jail. So the discharged batteries are thrown out of the jail and charged ones are thrown in,” said a source. “There are fixed timings for such activities every day after the rounds of senior officers are over and also seeing the position of the guards,” said a source.
According to sources, the role of the jail personnel would also come under scanner as involvement of some of them cannot be ruled out. SP Anupkumar Kumre of Nagpur Central Jail said there was regular patrolling near Barracks 5 and 6 which is supervised by him.