In Fresh controversy Shillong, June 25 : A cell phone with a SIM and a charger were recently found inside a toilet of Tura Jail in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, inviting fresh trouble for the jail department.
On October 22, taking advantage of laxity in this jail, 13 undertrials attempted a jailbreak. One was shot at by a homeguard while another made a suicide attempt to evade arrest.
Talking about the recent find inside the jail’s toilet, the director-general (prisons), Kulbir Krishan, today said the items were found on Sunday and the Tura Jail staff had filed an FIR with the local police station.
Initial police investigation has revealed three undertrials — Tengsal D. Sangma, Suraj Gupta and Silash Marak — had the cell phone in their possession.
Krishan said on June 9, they were lodged in Tura Jail and there was a chance that the cell phone was carried inside the jail by one of them.
It was the use of mobile phones that helped seven undertrials led by Full Moon Dhar establish connections with their friends before fleeing Shillong Jail last year. The Shillong jailbreak prompted authorities across the state’s jails to keep a close tab on taking in or out electronic equipment to and from the jails.
“In Tura Jail because of the absence of metal detectors, there is no mechanism to prevent ferrying of small electronic equipment, but efforts would be made to install modern gadgets to prevent jailbreak, Krishan said. There is a systemic failure that concerns us. The first thing we did after the recovery of the cell phone was to file an FIR and hand it over to police. A departmental inquiry was also ordered to find out any laxity on the part of any jail staff.”
“We need to install metal detectors in Tura Jail to prevent jailbreak,” he said. “We are determined to ensure that there is no more jailbreak, upgrade of the jails are on the cards,” Krishan said. Last year in Tura Jail, the 13 undertrials took advantage of the laxity in the prison during the collection of firewood on the jail premises.
The Meghalaya government has been drawing flak from various quarters after Justice (retired) D. Biswas, currently the Lokayukta in Assam, has come under criticism for resigning from the Shillong jailbreak inquiry commission.
This is the first time that a judge had left an inquiry commission midway without completing the probe. The Steering Committee Against Murder of Democracy, a conglomeration of NGOs, has “condemned” the resignation.
The committee expressed “serious apprehensions” that the state government had its own role to play on the issue, to “protect” certain people.
The government, however, has assured the Assembly that a newly appointed judge would soon head the probe panel. “We will also ensure that the head of the commission does not leave half way like the previous judge,” chief minister Mukul Sangma had told the House.