Vijayawada, July 22 Five officials of Kadapa Central Jail in Andhra Pradesh have been suspended after mobile phones were found in the possession of some remand prisoners.
Jailor Appa Rao, Deputy Superintendent Kamalakar, and three jail wardens have been suspended following the discovery of a major security breach.
Anjani Kumar, Director General, Prisons, issued orders suspending the Jail officials.
Ten mobile phones were found in the possession of notorious red sander smuggler Jakir, who was lodged in the Kadapa Central Jail, over four months. There have been allegations that the jail staff helped in providing phones to the prisoner.
The incident had raised serious concerns about the lapses in prison security.
Taking a serious note of this, the DG, Prisons, had ordered a probe.
Rajahmundry Central Jail DIG Ravi Kiran rushed to the jail on July 16 for the investigation. He oversaw the probe for four days.
The DIG interrogated both prisoners and jail staff to find out how the mobile phones entered the high-security premises.
Based on the preliminary investigation report of the DIG, Director General, Prisons, ordered the suspension of five Jail officials.
The investigations reportedly revealed that prisoner Jakir had access to mobile phones with the collusion of the Jail staff. The red sander smuggler was using the phones to be in regular contact with individuals outside, and this raised concerns about him running the smuggling operations from Jail.
Mobile phones recovered from the prisoner detained under the Preventive Detention Act were handed over to RIMS Police Station.
On the direction of the DIG, call records were retrieved from the devices. The officials identified the individuals with whom the prisoners communicated.
During the questioning, some staff members told the DIG that mobile phones were being thrown over the compound wall from outside. However, the official ruled out this possibility in the high-security jail and probed the involvement of insiders.
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