EIGHT HARDCORE ultras, lodged in the high-security Naini Central Jail, regularly talk to their family members in Pakistan, contacts in PoK and Kashmir, besides their handlers and trainers on mobile phones. All this is reportedly in the knowledge of the State Government. Yet, no preventive steps have been taken.
“We have done our job. We have already apprised the State Government of the danger. The rest is in the hands of the government. It is not that the ultras started talking to people in Pak recently. This has been going on for over a year and a half. All this is documented. We have heard their conversation through surveillance. We had even intimated the State Government about the risk factor, but our hands are tied for any action beyond this,” said a source on condition of anonymity.
The disclosure comes at a time when security agencies and the Central Government are bracing themselves up to fight terrorism, particularly in the aftermath of the Mumbai serial blasts.
There is definitely a network of carriers working outside the prison. Then, there are locals who regularly supply SIM cards and mobile phones to the ultras with the help of prison guards. The locals get articles from the carriers, who travel all the way from the border with cash to bribe the authorities here in the jail. This was evident from frequent change of SIM cards and mobile sets by terrorists, he said.
Use of mobile phones by criminals lodged in jails is not new. Underworld don Babloo Srivastava and Munna Bajrangi had used it during their stay in prison here, said the source.
But the fact that ultras got hold of gizmos in prison not only showed lapses in the security system in jails, “but also how corrupt we are”, he pointed out.
{{/usCountry}}But the fact that ultras got hold of gizmos in prison not only showed lapses in the security system in jails, “but also how corrupt we are”, he pointed out.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, mobile phones were used by a few criminals from prisons, but now it has become a trend. In Naini Central Jail, the trend was set by two politician brothers who belong to the city. The duo ordered food and anything else they wanted from outside, or their home. These articles were brought to the jail in a convoy of imported vehicles under the so-called watchful eyes of the authorities, who were reportedly well paid for looking the other way.
Sources said the ultras were even treated by the two politicians who supplied them with non-vegetarian dishes during the durbars they held in jail. As jail authorities had stooped low in helping criminals, the same loophole was being exploited by ultras, said the source.