Tihar’s dog squad to detect narcotics

Suresh Kumar, a Tihar inmate, is known among his co-inmates as someone who has his way usually. Despite frisking and use of metal detectors, Kumar manages to smuggle banned substances by hiding them in his body cavities.

Suresh Kumar, a Tihar inmate, is known among his co-inmates as someone who has his way usually. Despite frisking and use of metal detectors, Kumar manages to smuggle banned substances by hiding them in his body cavities.

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But with the jail administration’s latest move to begin using sniffer dogs to detect hidden narcotics — whether on the body of an inmate or inside the Jail’s 400-acre campus —chances are his luck will end soon.

“We have sent a proposal to the Delhi government for use by the prison administration to detect banned substances,” said Director General (prisons) Neeraj Kumar.

The jail administration has also tied up with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police — whose personnel are currently help secure the prison’s outer perimeter — to help it raise and train teams of sniffer dogs.

Manual frisking and metal detectors are not of much use in detecting tobacco or narcotics, especially when inmates hide them in body cavities or shoe-heels, said Tihar prison’s Deputy Inspector General RN Sharma.

New phone jammers
The prison administration also plans to install 21 additional jammers to crack down on usage of mobile phones by inmates.