2 Shillong jail officials suspended

Steps to prevent jailbreaks

Shillong, June 6 : Meghalaya home (jail) minister Paul Lyngdoh today suspended two senior officials of Shillong jail for various lapses in the prison which had led to the escape of seven undertrials recently. Superintendent of Shillong jail Paize Warjri and jailer Denis Warkhyllew were suspended for negligence of duty during the jailbreak. The action against the jail officials was based on the inquiry report of the additional director-general of police (prisons), Kulbir Krishan, who submitted the report on the jailbreak to the state government yesterday. Addressing a news conference, Lyngdoh said departmental action would be initiated against both these officials. Following the jailbreak, Full Moon Dhar, the leader of the gang who had escaped from the jail, was shot dead. The other six prisoners were later captured. Thereafter, six jail staff, Edward Wahlang, Raju Sunar, Sajan Kumar Rai, Tobias Dkhar, Bharat Singh and W. Myrboh were suspended while the services of a cook were terminated. Lyngdoh said new officers would be posted at the jail. He said according to the inquiry report, some staff were found guilty by way of collusion with the prisoners or by way of dereliction of duty. Lyngdoh said the major flaw in the jail administration was that the same staff continued to work at the jail for several years and had made friends with the prisoners. “Hence, we have decided to transfer the staff after every three years,” he said. With frequent jailbreaks in the state, the government is also contemplating to initiate a slew of measures, including strengthening of security system and reshuffling of staff in all the jails in the state. “We are convinced that tough measures need to be taken to have quality jail staff along with the installation of security equipment in all the jails in Meghalaya,” he said. The measures include introduction of uniforms for the prisoners and jail warders, installation of CCTV, electronic sliding gates and separate cells for hardcore criminals. To a question on Warjri who was earlier indicted by the CBI, Lyngdoh said the pending cases would be examined to prevent similar jailbreaks in the future. The CBI had indicted Warjri for his involvement in a case related to a prisoner, Rusith Sangma. In 1994, Sangma was substituted as Doyalian Kaipeng, an accused in a murder case, after Sangma probably died in custody. Though the CBI in its report in 2002 had asked the state government to initiate disciplinary action against Warjri and the officials involved in the crime, no action had been taken till date.