Mobile phones continue to be sneaked inside Amritsar Central Jail

PK Jaiswar

Advertisement

Amritsar, April 10

Close proximity of the Amritsar Central Jail with densely populated areas has become a major headache for jail authorities. Yet another search operation led to the seizure of as many as 10 mobile phones.

Despite posting paramilitary force and taking several steps, prohibited material, especially mobiles, continue to sneak in the high-security Central Jail premises. This has been a cause for major concern, as the it houses notorious criminals including gangsters, infamous drug peddlers and foreign nationals.

While three cell phones were confiscated from three inmates, the remaining seven were recovered from near the exhaust fan of the bathroom from room number 7 of barrack number 3. Prisoner Mandeep Kumar, alias Sonu, a resident of Krishna Nagar, near Jaura Phatak, was found possessing a smart phone, while two other inmates — Gajinderjit Singh, alias Rajbir, of RB Estate located on Loharaka Road and Lakhwinder Singh, alias Lucky, of Maqboolpura were having keypad phones.

Mandeep Behniwal, Assistant Superintendent of Central Jail, said besides mobile phones, the jail staff also seized two packets of cigarettes and a headphone from the barrack.

Three days ago, the jail staff had recovered seven mobile phones besides two headphones from the complex.

A former superintendent of jail, who has retired from services, said they had opposed the shifting of Amritsar Central Jail in densely populated area of Fatahpur, when the then government had selected the site for its construction. Earlier, it was located on Airport Road here.

A number of shortcomings were later found and the authorities concerned had written to the government to get these removed, but nothing has been done so far, said another jail official, who was transferred from here. These shortcomings also came to light when three inmates managed to escape by jumping over the walls in February 2020.

Three booked for thrashing fellow prisoner

Three jail inmates were booked by the police for allegedly thrashing another prisoner in room number 7 of barrack number 2. Those booked were identified as Harjinder Singh of Budha Theh, Angrej Singh of Bagrian in Tarn Taran and Gurwinder Singh of Navi Abadi in Kot Khalsa area. Sarabjit Singh, Assistant Superintendent, Jail, said three days ago around 1.30 pm, a prisoner Ranjit Singh got ill. He was taken to a medical facility in the jail. He said another jail inmate Sukhdeep Singh told that Ranjit was thrashed by three inmates. Ranjit also confirmed the same after returning from the jail hospital after treatment. SHO Parneet Dhillon said separate cases have been registered and further investigations were on.