Departmental probe on against Nagpur central jail officials

Nagpur: The arrest of two jail guards and three goons following a city police probe that revealed use of cellphone by under trials from barracks has led to departmental inquiry against Nagpur central jail officials.
This is the second major episode of cellphone use in the jail coming to fore within last couple of months. Earlier, batteries of cellphones and narcotics were intercepted at the jail gate.
DIG Prison, Swati Sathem said the prison department has begun an inquiry in the latest case.
Jail guards Ajinkya Rathod and Prashant Rathod were arrested on Wednesday and produced before the court by Dhantoli police on Thursday. Cops had also arrested three goons, Shrikant Thorat, Gopi Parate and Rahul Mendhekar, for allegedly providing ganja, sweaters, clothes and liquor to their aides in jail through the guards.
The five were remanded to police custody till December 5. Cops are also searching for a fruit vendor in front of jail’s car washing centre, who allegedly used to receive materials from the goons and hand them over to the jail guards.
Police are trying to take custody of cryptocurrency scam mastermind Nisedh Wasnik and Vaibhav Tandekar through court. Wasnik and Tandekar were allegdly communicate with the three goons on celphone through the guards for money.
According to the prison authorities, the government had thrice sent reports against the Nagpur officials for action. Senior officials also suggested the government a statewide reshuffling of staff for efficient supervision in Nagpur jail which had seen several serious incidents.
It’s learnt, manpower shortage due to vacancies in the jail department is also hurting the administration. Out of the five posts of the deputy inspector general of police (DIGP), three are vacant. Around 25 group I officers' posts are also vacant while there is shortage of 100 group II officers.