Cuddalore jail security beefed up over NIA alert

Cuddalore: Security has been stepped up at the Cuddalore Central Prison here following an alert received from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of the strong possibility of the ISIS launching an attack for freeing its member lodged there. Over 100 men from the armed reserve police are standing guard at the prison and also conducting intensive vehicle checks at roads leading to the prison.

According to informed sources, the NIA had sent an alert to the Tamil Nadu Government and the police headquarters a few days back that the ISIS terror outfit is planning to attack the Cuddalore Central Prison and free its member Ansar Meeran, who was arrested in Chennai in February this year. He had been lodged in Puzhal prison and was shifted to Cuddalore jail in July following clashes between two groups of prisoners and also amid media expose of the inmates leading luxurious life in the Puzhal jail. Several other prisoners had been shifted from Puzhal to other jails in the state during this crackdown.

Ansar, 29, had reportedly told some prisoners in the Cuddalore jail that the ISIS would soon attack the prison and take him back. The NIA alert has now pressed the alarm button in the state prison department, which has also stepped up vigil at the other central jails as well.

DIG (prisons) Shanmugasundaram inspected the Cuddalore jail Sunday evening and reviewed the security arrangements. He also ordered increase in the number of armed guards at the premises.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed at the prison following the suicide of life convict Mansoor Ali, 52, by hanging late Sunday night. He was convicted of murdering his wife at hometown Mayiladuthurai and lodged in the Cuddalore jail in August last year. Police are probing if the suicide had anything to do with the searches conducted in the cells following the NIA alert on Ansar.