Ganja, cellphones, seized from Hindalga prisoners

BELAGAVI: An early morning surprise check by the police at Hindalga Central Prison on Sunday has brought to light the easy availability of drugs, cigarettes and mobile phones inside the prison and the involvement of jail officials.

Around 100 policemen, headed by Belagavi police commissioner T.G. Krishna Bhatt, raided the jail, which houses some of the country’s notorious criminals. The police team found that inmates were taking drugs and cigarettes and it was being procured from outside with the connivance of jail guards.

The prison authorities were in for a surprise when about 25 police vehicles entered the jail premises and they included top police officers from Belagavi, including the commissioner, ACPs and DCPs.

The police team took charge of the jail and searched almost all the cells and barracks to expose illegal activities. According to a police officer, who was part of the raiding team, ganja was recovered at several places inside the prison, besides cigarettes and mobile phones. The raiding team seized ganja, mobile phones and SIM cards from the inmates, he added.

The raids were conducted following a tip off. However, the police have not disclosed about the number of inmates taking drugs or the amount of ganja seized during the raid.

They questioned several inmates during the raid to find out who were involved in supplying ganja into the jail. So far, the police did not arrest anybody nor did they file a case against either jail officials or inmates, sources said. An inquiry was on to bring all those involved in the supply of ganja inside the jail to book, they added.

Numerous cases in past
It may be recalled that a few weeks ago, a woman was able to supply ganja to an inmate under the pretext of meeting him and handing over a tiffin box. She had stuffed ganja in the groundnuts by removing the shells and stuffing the nuts with ganja. She had managed to paste the shell of groundnuts back intact using the gum after filling the nuts with ganja.

However, a curious prison guard later took a groundnut from the box to eat and was shocked to find ganja stuffed inside it. The prison authorities had let off the woman and the inmate with a warning and no case was registered against them.

Numerous raids have been carried out in the prison in the recent years and drugs and mobile phones have been unearthed. During one such raid few years ago an inmate, a notorious gangster, was found using several SIM cards and phones from inside and was allegedly in touch with his associates.

A few years ago, Yusuf Bachkana, a sharpshooter who worked for underworld don Chota Rajan, had threatened a Mumbai-based builder by making calls from inside the Hindalga prison.