GUWAHATI: Four employees of the District Jail in Assam's Sribhumi district, including two assistant jailers and two warders, have been arrested for allegedly supplying mobile phones and narcotic substances to inmates inside the prison, police said on Wednesday. June 10.
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The arrested jail staff have been identified as Rudra Deori, Subhasish Ghosh, Masid Ali Laskar and Biswajit Baruah.
Senior police officials said the arrests came more than four months after a surprise raid at the district jail on February 2, during which authorities recovered 29 mobile phones, chargers, SIM cards and other prohibited items from different wards of the prison.
Sribhumi Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Leena Doley had led the raid after intelligence inputs suggested that some inmates were regularly communicating with people outside the prison and were allegedly coordinating various activities from within the jail premises.
Following the operation, Doley had said that a special search operation was carried out based on intelligence inputs, leading to the recovery of 29 mobile phones from inside the prison.
Following the recovery, police launched a detailed probe to determine how such a large number of mobile phones had entered a high-security correctional facility.
"After the recovery, we began tracing the network that facilitated the entry of these devices into the jail. During the investigation, the possible involvement of jail personnel also came under scrutiny," a senior police officer said on Wednesday.
Police said the investigation subsequently uncovered evidence indicating that some jail employees had directly or indirectly facilitated the entry of mobile phones and other prohibited items into the prison.
Police said the arrests were made after investigators examined call records, questioned several individuals and gathered evidence linking the accused jail employees to the supply of the seized devices.
"Based on the evidence collected during the investigation, the four jail staff members were arrested. They will be interrogated further as part of the ongoing probe," the officer added.
Additional Superintendent of Police Trinayan Bhuiya, who is overseeing the investigation, said call records and communication details linked to the seized phones were thoroughly examined.
"Several individuals were questioned during the course of the investigation. Based on the evidence collected, necessary action has been taken against the accused persons," Bhuiya said.
He added that the investigation is continuing and more details are expected to emerge in the coming days. Steps are also being taken to strengthen security measures inside the prison and prevent similar incidents in the future.
Earlier, a similar crackdown was carried out at Dibrugarh Central Jail after a special team led by the Director General of Police recovered electronic devices from the cell where Punjab MP and pro-Khalistan leader Amritpal Singh had been lodged under the National Security Act.