The state prisons department on Saturday suspended superintendent of Alibaug district jail Ambadas Patil after he was indicted in a departmental inquiry for allowing Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami to use his cell phone on the night of November 5, 2020. Additional director-general (prisons) Sunil Ramanand told TOI, “An inquiry by Arthur Road central jail superintendent revealed that Patil unlawfully gave his phone to Goswami when he was at the makeshift quarantine centre at Alibaug civic school for communication with an outsider.”Ramanand said, “The inquiry officer relied on the statement of a jail guard, who had seen Patil handing over his phone to Goswami, for communicating with an outsider for more than two minutes.
Patil’s call data records and personal details of the caller show that a call was made from his phone late that night. ”The prison chief said inmates cannot communicate with family or relatives after closing hours at jail, except in an emergency, like medical treatment. “The report submitted few days back shows that there is clear cut evidence against Patil. After the report was placed before me, I took a call to suspend him under Maharashtra civil service rules,” he said. “The inspector-general of prisons (Byculla) has been instructed to hand over charge of Patil, an official of senior rank, to a competent officer for handling daily administrative work at Alibaug jail,'' he added. The prisons department had earlier suspended two staff of the jail where Goswami and two other accused in an abetment to suicide case of interior designer Anvay Naik, were previously lodged on November 10 last year after they allowed some inmates to use their cell phones.