Home Guards to plug security holes in jails

“The posting of Home Guards will reduce pressure and supplement the security arrangement. They ,however,will not be in charge of the prisoners,” said IG,Prison,VK Gupta. Plans are also afoot to fill 14,00 posts in jails which have been vacant for some time,he added.

On Wednesday,raids were conducted at all 62 jails under the guidance of district magistrates and superintendents of police. Prohibited items like blades,simcards and cellphones were recovered from seven jails — Ghazipur,Hamirpur,Sitapur,Faizabad,Basti and Azamgarh.

The latest incident of jailbreak occurred early on Tuesday morning. At Meerut Jail,7 murder convicts and two undertrials had scaled the boundary wall with the help of a ladder made of iron pipes,rods and wire.

The murder convicts were serving life sentences. Fourteen jail employees,including Meerut Jail Superintendent RN Upadhyay,were suspended thereafter.

Four other incidents of jailbreak occurred over the past three months. The sheer ease with which the prisoners made good their escape is a commentary on the standard of vigil.

* On June 21,four undertrials lodged in Mathura District Jail escaped,scaling the double-boundary using a saree. Sachin,Yogesh,Awadesh and Ajay Kumar were found missing during a headcount. Seven jail employees,including Superintendent Anita Dubey,were suspended. A couple of days ago,Awadesh was arrested. The others are still at large.

* On the afternoon of April 11,three inmates of Siddharth Nagar District Jail — Tej Singh,Hari Ram and Ramjan Ali— escaped by drilling a hole in the outer wall. Two of them were arrested by evening and the third,Hari Ram,a couple of days later.

* On June 11,an undertrial,Raj Kumar alias Chottu,escaped from Bhadoi Jail in broad daylight,squeezing out through a hole in the boundary wall he had drilled on the sly. The jailor was suspended.

* On June 25,murder convict Bharat Ram alias Bharat Lal escaped from the Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research,where he had gone to work. An inmate of Lucknow Model Jail,he was one of 70 sent to work on the fields of the institute. His escape was discovered during a headcount. Three warders were suspended.