Record 4,716 cell phones seized from prisoners in Punjab jails

BY VISHAL GULATI

Chandigarh, Jan 1 Prisons in Punjab, with a dubious history of gangsters, murderers, rapists, and terrorists posting pictures on social media, issuing extortion threats and hatching criminal conspiracies, are infamous for a storehouse of illegal drugs, mobile phones and prohibited items.

In almost one year, 4,716 mobile phones, the highest number in the recent years, have been seized from prisons, said the government.

A cellphone is one of the most treasured items in most of the jails of Punjab where a prisoner using a mobile phone is not a cognizable offence.

Probes conducted by the Jail Department have exposed a nexus between criminals and jail staff to supply phones, right from making video calls to family and friends to making ransom and threat calls.

Also, as per estimates of the department, close to 45 per cent of the 30,000 prisoners are addicted to drugs and they use mobile phone not only for procuring drugs, liquor and cigarettes from outside the jail premises but also a status symbol.

Taking a step to turn jails into reform houses, the AAP government, in a first-of-its-kind initiative, has stated screening all prisoners for drug abuse.

In order to design and implement better de-addiction strategy, a survey of all addict prisoners has been conducted. The survey comprised 86 questions, prepared by a committee of senior educationists and its report of the survey is being prepared, officials told .

This initiative comes in the wake of several instances of mobile phones and drugs seizures from the prisons and including the arrest of an additional superintendent posted of the Central Jail in Ferozepur in November on charges of supplying phones and drugs to prisoners.

As per police records, 10-odd jail officials, comprising two medical officers, were booked or arrested recently on charges of supplying mobile phones and drugs to prisoners.

After the Aam Aadmi Party