43 mobile phones seized from Amritsar Central Jail in 10 days

Amritsar, June 20

The sneaking in of mobile phones, mostly by lobbing in from outside the walls, continues unabated at the Amritsar Central Jail. Forty-three cellphones were seized by the jail authorities in the past 10 days.

On Wednesday, the jail authorities seized 17 mobile phones, including nine touch phones and eight basic ones, along with 16 SIM cards from 19 jail inmates. Following a complaint lodged by Assistant Superintendent Jail Nareshpal, the Islamabad police have registered a case under the Prison Act against the accused inmates.

On June 18, the jail officials had confiscated five mobile phones, besides 17.5gm of narcotic substance from five prisoners, while 21 cellphones were seized on June 10.

A team led by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Darpan Ahluwalia held an inspection inside the central jail today. She was accompanied by Superintendent Jail Anurag Azad, Assistant Commissioner of Police (investigations) Kuldeep Singh and ACP (South) Maninderpal Singh.

A project to put up high iron mesh on the jail’s boundary walls is in the pipeline, and its implementation is expected to curb the problem. Nevertheless, it remains a challenge for the jail authorities to end the menace as the high-security jail is located in a densely populated area. In the last six months, nearly 500 mobile phones have been seized from the jail.