NEW DELHI: With an aim to break collusion between the prison staff and inmates, a parliamentary committee has recommended the Union home ministry to instruct states to follow rotational policy of transfer and posting of the jail personnel. The committee also recommended to fix a maximum tenure of posting in one prison.
Flagging the issue, the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, in its 242nd report, noted that in some cases, the prison staff, including medical personnel of the prison hospitals, have been found involved in arranging mobile phones and other contraband items for the prison inmates.
“This is due to the fact that the prison staff stay posted in one prison for a long period of time. It leads to collusion between them and the prisoners. The committee, therefore, recommends that the ministry of home affairs may advise all the states to follow rotational policy for transfers and postings of prison staff, including medical staff, and set a maximum tenure for which a staff can work in one prison,” the report said. Recently during the countrywide raids by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), it was revealed that dreaded criminals and gangsters like Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar had executed their crimes with the help of their associates lodged in jails. Bishnoi is lodged in jail while Brar is hiding in Canada.
The NIA probe also revealed that several gangsters were operating out of India and carrying out terrorist and criminal activities from Pakistan, Malaysia, Philippines, Canada and Australia. For this, they used to take the help of their associates who were lodged in Indian jails and crimes like target killing and extortion were executed from jails.
Bishnoi's aide and gangster Deepak Boxer who has been brought back by Delhi police's special cell from Mexico, during interrogation, revealed that he used to talk to jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi on phone continuously. Deepak Boxer was also in touch with gangster Goldie Brar.
The panel also recommended that the union home ministry may consider creation of a cadre of prison staff for the Union Territories so that the personnel are transferred to different UTs and will not stay posted in one prison of any UT for a long period of time.
The Committee also expressed anguish over reduction of the allocation of Rs 400 crores in 2022-23 for the “modernisation of prisons” which was reduced to Rs 100 crores as funds could not be released due to technical problem that arose in the wake of implementation of Central Nodal Agency and State Nodal Account.
The Committee also recommends that the union home ministry should issue an advisory to the States and provide adequate funds for installation of jammers, door frame/ hand held metal detectors, baggage scanners, body-worn cameras , CCTV surveillance systems, and computers.
This along with the technological interventions for the security of jail will help in curbing the use of mobile phones and other contraband items by the criminals inside prisons, the panel noted in the report.
