4 Tihar staffers terminated for sneaking items inside jail

Tihar prison administration on Monday terminated services of four staffers, including an assistant jail superintendent and three warders, for their alleged role in a recent incident of smuggling of banned items inside the jail, which was caught on CCTV cameras.

“The Director General (Prisons) Alok Kumar Verma today (Monday) issued orders dismissing services of assistant jail superintendent Vinay Prakash, and warders Ajay, Raju Pandey and Rakesh, for their role in the incident of smuggling of banned items inside the jail that took place on intervening night of September 1-2,” said Additional Inspector General (AIG) and PRO of Tihar prison Mukesh Prasad.

All the four jail staff posted at Jail No 8 and 9 of the high-profile prison were found to be involved in the incident in which a sock stuffed with mobile phones, <g data-gr-id="24">charges</g> and tobacco, were thrown by one of the warders inside the prison from outside the boundary wall of the jail.

Warder Ajay was caught in the alleged act of throwing the items packed safely in the sock, by a CCTV camera. The camera recordings were later found to be erased to escape the blame, the AIG said. While Ajay was caught throwing the sock containing banned items by CCTV cameras. The assistant jail superintendent and two warders were found to be facilitating him, he said.

The action was taken against the staffers after an enquiry was conducted by the superintendent of jail no 8 and 9 and the termination orders were issued considering the findings of the probe which held the accused guilty, Prasad said.