‘Dozens’ of cell phones, SIM cards recovered from Kolhapur Central prison; Two officers, nine guards dismissed

When contacted, prison department chief additional director General Amitabh Gupta said, “After the recovery of a large number of cell phones from inside the Kolhapur Central Prison, we have dismissed from service two prison officers and nine prison guards, as per the provision of the Article 311 of the Indian Constitution. The prisons across the state have all been provided smart card based phone facilities and also the e-Mulakat online visitation facilities. But these facilities can be used to contact only verified contacts and these calls are monitored. The recovery of the number of cell phones, in spite of these facilities, leads us to presume they were being used for illegal activities.”

Officials from the Prison Department headquarters said that the orders to dismiss the 11 prison staffers were issued earlier this week. Kolhapur Central Prison, located at Kalamba in Kolhapur, is one of the nine high security Central Prisons in Maharashtra. As per latest available data of the prison population, which is from February, the Kolhapur Central Prison had a population of around 2,000 inmates.

In April last year, a statewide drive of thorough sweeps of prisons across Maharashtra was launched by the State Prison Department in which a large number of cell phones, cell phone batteries and SIM cards were found.

Among the cases from Pune’s Yerawada Central Prison last year, two phones and two batteries hidden in tennis balls hurled over the high walls were found during a peripheral patrolling round. Two cell phones were found in Yerawada Prison’s highest security Anda Cell during a surprise sweep. Two cell phones, which an inmate had hidden in his private parts in an attempt to smuggle them into the Yerawada Prison, were detected and seized at the entry gate during thorough checking. During a routine search at the Yerawada prison, an unusual bend on the tin sheet wall of a washroom spotted by a jail guard had led to discovery of a hidden cell phone.

These recoveries from prisons across the state had led to the registration of several offences and also stringent action against the prison officers who were in charge of security measures at the respective prisons. After recoveries of cell phones, offences are registered under section 42 of the Prisons Act, which pertains to taking prohibited items into the prisons and attracts a maximum sentence of six months.

Officials said that presence of cell phones inside the prison is a big security risk, especially because inmates from many sensitive cases including that of terrorism, economic offences, organised crimes and other serious offences, both undertrials and convicts including foreigners, are lodged inside the prisons.