IN A sweep conducted at the Yerawada Open Prison, jail authorities recovered seven cell phones, five phone chargers, a power bank and a vaping device. An investigation by police and an internal probe has been initiated into the recoveries, said an officer in the know of the matter.
An FIR in the case was registered at Yerawada police station last week based on a complaint filed by a jailer posted at the Yerawada Open Prison. Following directions of the Superintendent of the Open Prison Anil Khamkar, a sweep was conducted on the premises of the minimum security facility on the morning of August 26, said the officer.
During the sweep, cell phones, accessories and a vaping device were recovered, some of which were abandoned in the dustbin next to the prison washroom, some were hidden behind a wall and some were found in shrubs next to a barrack of the open prison.
A total of seven cell phones—three without a SIM card and four with SIM cards—five chargers, a power bank and a battery operated vaping device were recovered. “After the recovery of the cell phones, power bank, chargers and vaping device was reported to the senior prison department officials, an FIR was registered at Yerawada police station and an internal inquiry has also been initiated. These probes will try to ascertain how these phones were obtained, by whom and who were using them,” added the officer.
Open prisons are minimum security facilities where convicted inmates are lodged after they show good behavior and signs of reform during their sentences at central prisons. The sentence served at open prisons have a key advantage — for one year served at open prison without any negative remark, an inmate gets one year of remission.
The inmates of open prisons work in open fields located next to these prisons and have least monitoring as against the maximum security facilities which have stringent monitoring, security and surveillance. Located next to maximum security Yerawada Central Prison, the Yerawada Open prison currently has 240 inmates, all serving life sentences for murders and who have shown good behavior in their stay at various central prisons in the state. A life convict has to serve a sentence ranging from 14 years to the entirety of natural life in prison, depending on the nature of the crime and several other factors.
A senior officer from the prison department said, “The prisons across the state have all been provided smart card based phone facilities, video calling facilities through e-Mulakat online visitation facilities. But these facilities can be used to contact only verified contacts and these calls are monitored. The recovery of the number of cell phones, in spite of these facilities, suggests that they were being used for illegal activities.”
In a drive launched across key prisons in the state in April last year, 33 cellphones were recovered from six prison facilities for which 20 FIRs were registered. Of these, maximum 17 phones were seized from Yerawada prison in Pune alone.
The recovery of the 33 phones were in addition to multiple recoveries of the cell phone batteries and SIM cards, which prisons officials say, are equally ‘useful’ for an inmate when the cell phones are shared among a group of them. The officers of the prisons, where the phones were seized, also faced action for having failed to put in place adequate security measures.
Earlier this year, following recovery of several cell phones and SIM cards during one such coordinated sweep conducted inside the high security Kolhapur Central Prison, two prison officers and nine prison guards were dismissed from service by the Maharashtra prison department in Pune.
Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories
