Bihar: 23 cellphones, 11 sim cards seized from different jails

PATNA/MUZAFFARPUR: Altogether 23 cellphones, 11 sim cards, 16 chargers, Rs6,382, tobacco and other objectionable items were seized on Sunday from several jails, including the one at Hajipur where undertrial Manish Kumar alias Teliya was gunned down on Friday. The raids were conducted simultaneously.
Three more cellphones and Rs6,385 were recovered from the Hajipur jail inmates.Eleven cellphones were already seized from inmates following Teliya’s murder.
According to IG (prisons and correctional services) Mithilesh Mishra, five cellphones, four charges and two sim cards were recovered from Shaheed Khudi Ram Central Jail in Muzaffarpur and five cellphones from Sitamarhi district jail. Besides, four cellphones, two chargers and one sim card were found in Barh sub-jail while two cellphones and three chargers were seized from inmates at Nawada jail.
Muzaffarpur DM Alok Ranjan Ghosh and SSP Jayant Kant carried out massive search operations in every ward of the jail. Sources said several businessmen in Muzaffarpur get frequent extortion calls from the jail inmates and that was another reason for conducting the raids.
“We found that the tower locations of most of the cellphones through which extortion calls had been made were around the jail area. We also wanted to check the alertness of jail employees in case of any untoward situation,” Ghosh said and added: “Some electronic gazettes, including cellphones and accessories, were seized.”
The DM said jail authorities have been asked to submit their response on the recovery of these items. “A report has also been sent to senior jail authorities,” Ghosh said.
Sheohar DM Avaneesh Kumar Singh and SP Santosh Kumar raided the divisional jail and recovered some objectionable items, including tobacco and gutka, cellphones, small scissors, shaving kits with blades and iron rods from the wards. The jail officials have been asked to lodge an FIR with the local police station,” the SP said.
The raiding teams seized one cellphone and charger from central jail at Motihari in East Champaran, one cellphone from Sheohar district jail, one cellphone and charger with four sim cards from Saharsa district jail and one cellphone with two chargers from Jehanabad district jail.
The raids were also conduct to review the legitimacy and grounds on which inmates are admitted to the jail hospitals.
Incidentally, Manish was also in the jail hospital when he was shot dead by another inmate Raja Babu at the behest of Manish’s rival Anu Singh. Anu is also lodged in Hajipur jail.
Manish and Anu were involved in gold loot in different states and they had a dispute over sharing the booty, leading to the murder, according to police.
Mishra said FIRs were lodged for recovery of prohibited items from jails and action would be taken against erring officers for security lapses.