Jail constable hid charas in underwear, caught while supplying it to inmate

A prison constable in Mumbai has been arrested for attempting to smuggle 70 grams of charas to a prisoner. The drugs were concealed in capsules hidden in the constable's underwear. The constable has admitted to receiving the drugs from someone named Rahul and intended to deliver them to a specific inmate. The police are investigating further.

Mumbai: A prison department constable was arrested on Sunday by the NM Joshi Marg police for allegedly trying to supply 70 grams of charas to a prisoner lodged in the high-security circle in the Arthur Road Central prison. The arrested constable has been identified as Vivek Dattatray Naik who packed the drugs inside eight capsules and concealed them in his underwear.

HT Image

The accused constable allegedly revealed that he wanted to supply the drugs to an inmate lodged at a high-security barrack inside the Arthur Road Central Jail. The police said that when checked, they found charas inside the capsules that weighed around 70 grams. The capsules’ contents were sent to the forensic laboratory to verify what exactly they were, the police said. Meanwhile, the constable is in police custody after his arrest.

On Saturday, while frisking Vivek Dattatray Naik, the accused constable, who has been working with the Arthur Road Jail for two years, refused to allow the constable posted at the Jail’s gate, Deepak Sawant, to conduct a check on him. Sawant then took Naik’s senior officers and in a room carried his frisking.

“It was found in a plastic bag which was closed with the help of adhesive tape and kept in his underwear near his private part. There were eight capsules. When opened those capsules had a powder-like substance which when weighed was 70 grams later prima facie through him and through suspicion it was found to be Charas. He also accepted that the substance was handed to him by one Rahul and it was to be delivered in the high-security prisons circle 2 to one inmate Rashid,” said the police officer.

“We arrested Naik and booked him under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. We have got five days of police custody of Naik and questioning him further as to where he got the drugs from and where he was to supply them,” said the police officer.

The police said not everyone entering jail can be daily checked however Naik was a suspect as he was earlier caught with money in Taloja Jail in Navi-Mumbai and was even punished for the same.

“So he was under observation and when the jail authorities suspected something wrong they searched him. The jail authorities had also recommended a reward for Deepak Sawant who caught Naik,” said the police officer.

Earlier, jail constables in December 2022, had caught drugs when it was thrown from outside inside the jail premises by unknown persons around 130 grams of charas kept in a polythene bag the jail had even registered a case against unknown people for the same.