Dogs to dig out hidden mobiles in Punjab jails  

CHANDIGARH:  Prisoners who smuggle in mobile phones inside jails now beware. Dogs of Belgian Malinois breed will be used to sniff out hidden phones in the prisons of Punjab.  Prison authorities in the US, Canada and European countries deploy these specially-trained canines who can detect the hidden phones with the smell of the batteries. In India, this is perhaps the first time that dogs will dig out phones in prison cells.

Newton Sidhu, director of Punjab Home Guards Canine Training and Breeding Institute at Dera Bassi, told this newspaper, “The Punjab prisons department is planning to buy dogs and deploy them in all the jails across the state. On a trial basis, we have already deployed four dogs at Ludhiana Central Jail and now we will be deploying them at Amritsar Central Jail.’’

The Belgian Malinois dogs are imported from the Netherlands and Poland. “The inmates usually hide the phones underground beneath the concrete or other flooring in jails wrapped in empty milk or other plastic packets,” said Sidhu.

It takes around four months to train this breed to sniff out the mobile phones and costs Rs 3 lakh. “We have called trainers from the US to train these dogs. Our training methodology is a food reward programme which was developed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the US. Under this programme, the dog is given his food only when it finds something (article),” Sidhu said.

He added that the Begian Malinois dogs are huge, aggressive and can work for long hours — about eight hours — at a stretch. They come from cold countries but can adjust as per environment. “The Assam Rifles are taking this breed from us for explosives detection and Kerela Police for finding narcotics and explosives. Sikkim, Manipur, J&K Police forces have also taken this breed for explosives detection,” he said. Sidhu said the Army, too is planning to buy the Belgian Malinois pups from the institute and will train them itself.

2,600 mobiles seized in jails this year so far 
Nearly 2,600 mobile phones have been recovered from various jails of Punjab this year so far. The state prison department is learnt to have issued an advisory to superintendents asking them to conduct frequent searches, especially in jails where high-risk prisoners, gangsters and smugglers are lodged. They have been told that they would be held responsible if any incident of cellphone use inside jails comes to light.