‘Porous’ prisons: HC summons Joint Secy

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 11

Jail authorities in Punjab have found that prohibited items were thrown inside over the wall five times a month, on an average.

This revelation, underlining security concerns, has prompted Justice Rajan Gupta of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to direct the state to specify whether a time frame had been fixed for shifting Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Ferozepur jails out of residential areas.

Justice Gupta also directed the state to depute an officer not below the Joint Secretary’s rank to remain present in the court on the next date of hearing.

Expressing concern over the use of mobile phones in prisons, state DGP Suresh Arora had recently raised the issue with the government, even as mobile jammers were installed in Nabha, Sangrur and Patiala jails.

As a petition filed by Rajesh Kumar and others through counsel Tanu Bedi came up for hearing, the Bench was told that the Gurdaspur Central Jail was situated in the middle of the city. Five years ago, the outer area comprising agricultural land was acquired by Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) on the state government’s direction for acting as a buffer between the jail and the city area.

After acquisition, PUDA developed a residential colony surrounding the jail from three sides. The colony roads were now touching the prison’s outer security wall from three directions.

Lakhminder Singh Jakhar, DIG (Prisons), said this gave easy access to miscreants to throw prohibited items inside. The matter was taken up by his office with the Additional Chief Secretary, Home and Jails, vide a letter dated September 29.

In his status report, Jakhar said at least 44 instances of articles being thrown inside over the outer wall had come to light during the first nine months of this year.

Jakhar added that the Jail Department had taken action against miscreants and staff caught smuggling and throwing prohibited items inside prisons. He said 12 jail employees had been dismissed in the past three years and 25 were facing departmental inquiries for alleged involvement in supplying forbidden articles. “Every such incidence of supplying or recovering prohibited articles from inmates has been reported to the police,” he concluded.