Mobile recovered from gangster in Kapurthala jail, unabated recoveries expose lax security

Though jail premises have been sealed and no visitors have been allowed for the past three months, the recovery of mobile phones from Kapurthala Modern Jail remains unabated, exposing lax security in the prison.

Jail authorities recovered a mobile phone, Sim Card and battery from gangster and vehicle lifter Sukhjinder Singh alias Billa Tolenangal of Amritsar during a search of his cell on Thursday.

Billa has nine criminal cases, including murder and attempt to murder, registered against him. Before his arrest in 2015, he had stolen SAD leader Surinder Singh Jhanjoti’s SUV.

Jail deputy superintendent of police Inderpal Singh raided the cell and recovered a phone from his possession and recommended a case against him under Section 52A of the Prison Act.

This is not the first time that a mobile phone or banned item has been recovered from an inmate, just last week a mobile was recovered from a gangster and two mobile phones with Sim cards and batteries were recovered from three other inmates on June 23 and June 6.

This year, an ASI was caught smuggling 50g charas into the jail. In the 13 cases where drugs were recovered from Kapurthala jail last year, the involvement of jail officials was established in five.

JAIL STAFF HELP SMUGGLE CONTRABAND

Of the 10 drug recoveries made from Kapurthala jail in 2018, staff was found involved in three.

“In many incidents the Punjab Police found that the phones were being used for threatening, chatting, uploading videos and photos on social networking sites,” said a senior jail official on the request of anonymity.

Kotwali station house officer Navdeep Singh said the gangster’s call records will be procured to find out whom he was contacting outside jail.

Jail superintendent Baljit Singh Ghuman said around 100 mobile phones along with Sim cards had been recovered from jail this year during surprise inspections.

As per Kotwali police station records around 170 mobile phones were seized in 2018 and over 200 mobile batteries, Sim cards and chargers were recovered from prisoners in 2019.