43 gm heroin, phone recovered from Ferozepur jail, 4 booked

The accused include inmates Sukhdeep Singh, Gagandeep Singh and Kuljit Singh, besides PESCO employee Gurmit Singh, who has been arrested

Ferozepur police have booked three inmates and a Punjab Ex-Servicemen Corporation (PESCO) employee for allegedly smuggling heroin and a mobile phone into the Ferozepur Central Jail.

During routine frisking, jail staff allegedly recovered 43 gm heroin from an inmate’s underwear. (Getty Images/Vetta)

The accused include inmates Sukhdeep Singh, Gagandeep Singh and Kuljit Singh, besides PESCO employee Gurmit Singh, who has been arrested.

According to officials, the incident came to light around midnight on May 14 when a life imprisonment convict Sukhdeep Singh, a resident of Faridkot, was entering the jail through the “deori” gate. During routine frisking, jail staff allegedly recovered 43 gm heroin from his underwear.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the contraband was allegedly arranged and facilitated by Gurmit Singh, a PESCO employee deployed on control room duty outside the jail premises. Another inmate, Gagandeep, was also booked for conspiring in the drug movement.

Jail authorities also recovered a keypad mobile phone, along with its battery and a Vi SIM card, from inmate Kuljit Singh. Investigators suspect that the mobile phone had been handed over by an unidentified person to the PESCO employee for delivery to prisoner Sukhdeep inside the jail.

Officials further revealed that communication among the accused inmates was being facilitated through the arrested PESCO employee, pointing towards a possible organised smuggling network operating within the prison.

A case was registered under relevant sections of the NDPS Act and the Prisons Act on the complaint of Gurpiar Singh, deputy superintendent (Security). Gurkanwaljit Kaur has been appointed as the investigating officer.

The latest recovery has once again exposed glaring loopholes in prison security arrangements. Police officials said more than 150 mobile phones and several other prohibited items had been recovered from inmates and jail premises during the current year alone.