Telangana: Prison staff smuggle cell phones for inmates

Hyderabad: Prisoners in the Telangana jails get access to mobile phones, aided by corrupt staff.  Various investigation agencies have identified the prisoners, especially hardcore extortionists, organised gangs and history-sheeters, in the Telangana jails using mobile phones.

Following gangster Nayeem’s case, the intelligence wing had alerted the prisons department that Pasham Srinu, a close associate of Nayeem, was using mobile phone for threatening the witnesses in the case. Subsequently, Mr Vinoy Kumar Singh, director-general of prisons, directed Mr Akula Narasimha, IG of prisons, to probe the allegations and based on the preliminary report, he transferred S. Sudhakar Reddy, deputy jailor of the Warangal central prison, to the Kalwakurthy sub-jail.

Later, the DG suspended the deputy jailor. He reportedly gave his mobile phone to Pasham Srinu for threatening the witnesses. Earlier in the same case, Gopi Reddy, a jailer from the War-angal central prison, was suspended.

A source from the department said that as per the rules, mobile phones should be deposited at the main gate before entering the prison. This rule is also applicable to officials. However, some of the corrupt officials take mobile phones inside by diverting attention of the security staff. “The decade-long proposal to install mobile signal jammars in the prisons is not taking off due to multiple reasons. Ten years back, a pilot project was taken up in the Cherlapalli central prison and it was put on hold as it affected the mobile phone connectivity of the nearby residents. The proposal to purchase 700 CCTVs is also gathering dust,” the source said.

A few staff from the Armed Reserve Force are also offering mobile phones to hardcore criminals during shifting of the inmates from the jail to the court. Recently, the Racha-konda police suspended Ramesh, an AR sub-inspector, two head constables and a constable for providing cell phones to Pasham Srinu while shifting him to the court. Pasham Srinu used the cell phone 84 times to warn the witnesses in the case. Hardcore criminals like Bhanu Kiran, white-collar offender ASI Mohan Reddy and a few extremists are allegedly using mobile phones in jails.