Knives, mobile phones, lighters seized during raids in jails across Bihar

The raids were conducted on directive of the home department, which received complaints about some hardcore criminals, politicians and jail authorities bringing many prohibited items inside the premises.

A large number of mobile phones, cigarette packs, lighters, knives, cash was seized from prisoners during raids in over 48 jails across Bihar on Wednesday.

The searches were conducted by joint teams of the district administration and the police of the respective districts. (HT Photo)

A senior official said that the raids were conducted on directive of the home department, which received complaints about some hardcore criminals, politicians and jail authorities bringing many prohibited items inside the premises.

There were also reports that some high-profile goons were running their kidnapping and contract killing rackets with the help of mobile phones from the jails of Beur, Bhagalpur, Buxar, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Motihari, Saran and Ara.

The searches were conducted by joint teams of the district administration and the police of the respective districts.

In Patna, DM Chandrasekhar Singh, city SP (west) Ashok Mishra and other officials reached Beur Central Jail around 5 am to search the premises. They noticed that despite the alert, deputy jail Superintendent Sanjay Kumar reached 30 minutes late.

The search was delayed for an hour and the inmates were already informed allegedly by Kumar, who opened the main gate 40 minutes late.

The DM issued a show cause notice to him. The Beur jail premises were searched twice and a SIM card from prisoner and former JD(U) leader Vijay Krishna was recovered.

The Patna administration also recovered two cell phones, two registers, with details of five bank accounts and 20 mobile numbers, from an empty room. Talking to reporters, the DM said police will investigate the cell phone numbers and bank account details.

A total of nine cell phones, four chargers, three batteries and other incriminating articles were recovered from Nawada divisional jail during the raid. Nawada SP Dhurat Saayli Savlaram and other senior officials were part of the team which conducted raids.

In Siwan, the administration recovered two knives, two belts, earphones and a mobile charger from the ward. The authorities recovered a mobile and charger in Bhojpur, while in Sitamarhi two cell phones were recovered from a ward.

The Motihari administration seized five mobile phones, three chargers, knife, pen drive, and other materials during the raid. In Chhapra jail, the administration found three mobile with chargers from a ward. Two knives, mobile phones were seized from Madhubani jail.

Reports from Khagaria, Aurangabad, Gopalganj, Saharsa and Biharsharif, the administration recovered altogether 10 cell phones, five mobile chargers, pen drives, mobile chips, charger connector, contrabands and incriminating materials.

“Guilty jail officials will be subjected to disciplinary action on account of their laxity which led to the entry of such items inside the jail premises. FIRs are being lodged against the prisoners possessing such articles,” said IG (Prison) Mithilesh Mishra.

The state has 59 jails of which eight are central jails.