Now, cops on duty alongside Amritsar Central Jail boundary wall

Tribune News Service

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, June 24

In order to nail the problem of throwing prohibited material, including mobile phones, cigarettes and sedative pills, the police have deputed cops at vulnerable points alongside the outer boundary walls of the Amritsar Central Jail here.

Among various modes, throwing method is used in rampant manner for sneaking mobile phones which is further used by criminal elements, including gangsters and cross-border drug traffickers, to run their networks.

In the past police registered cases against unidentified persons when jail authorities recovered packets of mobile phones, cigarettes and intoxicating tablets thrown out of the jail complex. These were usually thrown in boxes wrapped with adhesive tapes. Headphones, modified mobile chargers and electric heater springs were among other things thrown inside the jail.

The Amritsar Central Jail was shifted to new complex around six years ago. The new building is surrounded by densely populated areas notorious for drug abuse and crime. Jail authorities have often complained that prohibited materials were thrown inside the jail from outside by unscrupulous elements.

This year, the police have seized nearly 500 mobile phones from the Amritsar Central Jail alone. The jail authorities have increased search operations with the help of a paramilitary company deputed in the jail leading to huge recoveries.

A senior cop wishing not to be named confirmed that cops were deputed near the vulnerable points alongside the outer boundary walls of the jail for curtailing instances of throwing.

Nevertheless, the continuous seizure of mobile phones also exposes chinks in the safety of high security jails.

“Despite manifold increase in sneaking of mobile phones in past several years, the Punjab Police have miserably failed to sincerely probe these seizures,” said Sarabjit Singh Verka of the Punjab Human Rights Commission, an NGO. He said the police were limited to register FIRs with every seizure, but it never bothered to investigate how it slipped into, which SIM cards used, phone call details etc. clearly pointing towards the nexus between jail authorities, gangsters and their political bosses outside.

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