New Delhi: After several incidents of gangs operating from Tihar and mobile phones being seized from the cells of gangsters and terror accused, the jail authorities are planning to install high-quality CCTV cameras by April-end.
While the work is nearing completion at the Mandoli and Rohini prisons, the Tihar authorities have also started installing the cameras. This will ensure 24x7 monitoring, while the jail staff will also be able keep an eye on criminals involved in fights inside the prisons.
“The cameras will cover maximum areas, which will help monitor the activities of the inmates and enhance security of the prisons,” said Sandeep Goel, DG Prisons.
Recently, the plan to free Kuldeep alias Fajja from police custody was hatched by his gang member Jitender Gogi lodged in Tihar.
A senior official said the work was going on for a year and nearing completion soon. The installation work has been given to the public works department, which is likely to complete it by April 30.
A total of 6,967 cameras are being installed in all the three prisons. Around 700-800 cameras installed earlier had become old and stopped working. The new ones are being installed in the common areas, jails where hardened criminals and terror accused are lodged, apart from those for undertrials.
In March, the Tihar Jail officials conducted a massive search operation inside sub-jail number 8 and recovered a mobile handset and a SIM card on which a Telegram account in the name of ‘Jaishulhind’ was created. This account had claimed responsibility for the explosive-laden SUV found abandoned near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai and demanded money through cryptocurrency.
According to prison sources, jail number 8 houses terrorists of Indian Mujahideen, like Tehsin Akhtar, apart from a few linked to al-Qaeda and the underworld. The mobile handset was recovered from Akhtar’s barracks.
Recently, in several crimes that have occurred in Delhi, the planning was done by criminals using mobile phones from the jail premises.