Tihar gets 15 new phone jammers to block 4G signals

New Delhi: Asia’s largest prison Tihar is under the process of installing 15 jammers at six new locations to prevent the inmates from using mobile phones from inside the jail, officials on Tuesday said.

A mobile phone jammer is a device that blocks the transmission of signals between the phones and base towers.

The officials said the project, which costs about Rs 11.5 crore, will help in jamming the signals of all kinds of phones having 2G, 3G and 4G networks in the jail.

A senior Tihar Jail official said these 15 jammers will be the addition to three

currently installed Towers of Harmonious Call Blocking (THCB) systems, a kind of technology that discontinue the call as soon it begins.

“15 new static towers of jammers, which works in noise technology, will completely

prohibit the inmates from using phones in the prisons,” the officer said. The work of installation of these towers began two months ago and is expected to be completed this month, the officer added.

On being asked, Tihar Director General Sanjay Baniwal confirmed the development.

Another officer said these jammers are getting installed at high security prisons which houses in six out of nine jails of Tihar.

Currently, Delhi has 19,000 inmates, against the capacity of 10,000 inmates in all three jails — Tihar, Mandoli and Rohini.

The inmates are often caught using mobile phones despite multiple level of checking at the entry points of Tihar. The mobile phones are also

often thrown from outside the boundary walls of Tihar, the officials said.

In the past few years, the jailed gangsters making video calls and putting videos of their cell on social media are also found to be happening from inside the jails.

Making threat and extortion calls were also very common from inside the jails, the officials said. Among them was a jailed conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who was caught using the branded phones with 4G technologies.

“The present jammers, which could block 2G and 3G signals, are outdated. Therefore, the upgradation of jamming technology and installation of tower that could block the 4G signals was much needed,” the officer said. He added that to prevent the use of mobile phones, the jail administration keeps conducting raids and does surprise checks. With agency inputs