Mobile recovered from gangster in Kapurthala jail

A mobile phone was recovered from a gangster lodged in Kapurthala Modern Jail on Tuesday.

Jail authorities recovered a smartphone, sim card, battery and charger from gangster Rajinder Singh alias Mintu, during a surprise inspection of the cells. Authorities also seized five abandoned phones and batteries.

A case has been registered against Mintu and some unidentified inmates under Sections 52A of the Prisons Act at the Kotwali Police Station on the recommendation of jail deputy superintendent of police (DSP) .

Police have started an investigation to trace contacts with whom the gangster was in contact with outside the jail.

Though jail premises have been sealed and no visitors have been allowed since the lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19, the smuggling of mobile phones into Kapurthala Modern Jail remains unabated, exposing the lax security in the prison. This is the third time that a banned item has been recovered from inmates in the last two months.

On June 26, a mobile and sim card were recovered from Sukhjinder Singh alias Billa Tolenangal of Amritsar and two mobile phones with sim cards and batteries were recovered from three other inmates on June 23 and June 6.

This year, an assistant sub-inspector (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.

Around 120 mobile phones along with sim cards had been recovered from jails 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.