2 convicted of carrying mobile, SIM cards in jail

Chandigarh, April 12

A local court has sentenced two inmates, Deepak and Rajinder Singh, to six-month rigorous imprisonment in a case registered against them in 2021 after mobile phones and other electronic articles were recovered from them in the Burail jail.

The police registered the case against the accused for the offence punishable under Section 52-A (1) of the Prisons (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2011, and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code on a complaint filed by Amandeep Singh, Additional Superintendent of Jail.

Amandeep said a special search of barracks No. 8 of the Model Jail, Chandigarh, was conducted by the jail staff on January 31, 2022. During a search of accused Deepak, one mobile phone along with a SIM (Airtel) was recovered from him. Also, one digital watch phone with a memory card-2 GB was recovered from Rajinder. During interrogation, Rajinder also information the staff about other prohibited articles, including data cables, one Bluetooth device, three batteries, one dual charger and two electric wires hidden in a hole in the washroom of barracks No. 8. All those articles were also seized.

After investigation, a challan against the accused was presented before the court. AS Gujral, counsel for the accused, argued that they were falsely implicated in the case. He said no SIM numbers were mentioned by the police in the challan. It was also not mentioned to whom the SIM cards were issued.

The Public Prosecutor said the prosecution had proved the case against the accused.