Jail inmates have liquor inside barrack; 6 officials suspended
Lucknow: A Raebareli jail video showing inmates having drinks inside the barrack went viral on social media Monday, bringing to focus clandestine entry of liquor and firearms in prisons, months after the
sensational killing of an imprisoned mafia don inside the
Baghpat jail.
After local TV news channels repeatedly telecast the latest footage showing one of the inmates calling someone using a mobile phone to order liquor, and another threatening someone displaying a weapon to extract money, the authorities suspended six officials, including a senior jail superintendent.
The Uttar Pradesh government also shifted the four inmates seen in the video to other jails, Principal Secretary Home Arvind Kumar said.
An FIR has been lodged against them under various sections of the IPC and Prisons act, he said.
Kumar also said that as soon as the video came to light, the jail premises was checked by the administration and local authorities and four mobiles and a SIM card were recovered.
Those suspended included senior jail superintendent Pramod Kumar Shukla and three jail warders, he said.
The jail authorities in Uttar Pradesh had faced a lot of flak after imprisoned mafia don Munna Bajrangi was shot dead by his rival inside the Baghpat jail in July.
Jails in the state are already plagued by problems such as over-crowding, staff shortage and porous security, with frequent reports of liquor, weapons and mobile phones getting sneaked inside.
In many jails, CCTV cameras, metal detectors and manual scanners do not function properly, a committee set up to probe the state of affairs in UP prisons had state noted.
The fresh incident was reported at a time when the jail administration was in the process of upgrading prisons with multi-level security system and installation of machines to check clandestine entry of illegal weapons - both firearms and sharp edged weapons to end the bloody battles in jails and inmates being killed while being taken to court for hearings.