Staffers at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison on Tuesday caught red-handed Nagendra K., a convict, using mobile phone in the kitchen room of tower-2. Nagendra attacked the prison staff and abused them after he was caught operating the phone. The officials handed over the phone to the police seeking detailed investigations.
The incident comes in the backdrop of a recent surprise visit by Home Minister Araga Jnanendra to the prison over unchecked contraband like mobile phones and narcotics. Triggered by the Home Minister’s recent visit and Tuesday morning’s incident, Chief Superintendent of Parappana Agrahara Central Prison P.S. Ramesh launched a two-hour surprise check for contraband at all the barracks on Tuesday night.
Officials recovered 33 mobile phones with several SIM cards found outside the barracks and washrooms. The seized mobile phones have been handed over to the Parappana Agarahara police for a technical analysis to uncover who used it and to make calls to whom. The two-hour search operations conducted by the prison staff not only exposed security lapses at the high-security prison but also led the officials to suspect the involvement of insiders who smuggle phones and drugs inside the prison.
Ineffective jammers
Prison officials said they were unable to check mobile usage despite 18 network jammers at the prison, as all the jammers installed were for 3G mobile network, while all the SIM cards and mobile phones recovered on Tuesday night were 4G network enabled.
Following an incident, where a terror suspect lodged in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison made a call to Pakistan in 2011, the State government installed mobile jammers at the prison complex. The last update to the jammers was made in 2018 when Electronic Corporation of India, Hyderabad, installed 18 3G mobile network jammers at a cost of ₹7 crore and since then there has been no upgrade, while 4G network has almost become the norm in the market today.
The Prison Department has now asked the ECIL, Hyderabad, and BEL to upgrade the jammers to block 5G mobile network. A decision to this effect was taken at the first meeting of the Karnataka Prisons Development Corporation meeting chaired by Mr. Jnanendra recently.
Meanwhile, the prison officials also obtained gadgets such as door frame metal detectors, handheld metal detectors and other electronic gadgets for surveillance and regular surprise checks at the prison, another official part of the recent raid, said.
Apart from registering a case at the jurisdictional police station, a high-level inquiry has been initiated to ascertain how the contraband was smuggled into the prison despite three-tier security cover.
