Amritsar: Cops seize mobiles, drugs during raids at central jails
Around 1,000 cops, who descended upon the Amritsar central jail on Sunday morning, recovered 21 mobile phones, eight SIM cards, a few adapters, 308 syringes and some drug injections besides Rs 14,000 from inmates.
Around 1,000 cops, who descended upon the Amritsar central jail on Sunday morning, recovered 21 mobile phones, eight SIM cards, a few adapters, 308 syringes and some drug injections besides Rs 14,000 from inmates.
Read more: Mobiles, drugs, cash seized from Punjab jails
Led by Amritsar police commissioner Amar Singh Chahal, the cops raided the jail premises around 5am when most inmates were sleeping. Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) J Elanchezhian, additional deputy police commissioner (ADCP, headquarter) Deepak Hilori and ADCP (investigation) Lakhbir Singh were also part of the raiding team.
ADCP Lakhbir Singh said the raid aimed to unearth mobile phones getting slipped into jails. “Of 21 mobile phones seized from the inmates, four are smartphones. Although some drug injections have also been recovered, we are yet to verify whether these were used as medicines, as there are some patients in the jail too,” he said.
Sources said when cops entered the jail, some prisoners got alerted due to the commotion and threw mobiles phones and other material outside their cells. Most of the items were recovered from bushes, they said. The jail authorities refused to comment on the development.
Six inmates booked in Gurdaspur
Six mobile phones, a SIM card and 430 grams of narcotic powder were recovered from six inmates at the Gurdaspur central jail during a three-hour raid conducted by senior superintendent of police (SSP) Jagdeep Singh Hundal along with around 200 cops from Gurdaspur and Batala police districts on Sunday.
Later, addressing a press conference in his office, SSP Hundal said the recoveries were made from inmates Sawinder Singh of Dharmabad, Prabhjit Singh of Tibber, Hira Lal of Gurdaspur, Rajeshwar, alias Pappu, of Gagra, Rajesh Kumar of Amritsar and Gurmeet Singh of Ghanie Ke Bangar.
The SSP said cases under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act had been registered against the six at the Gurdaspur city police station.
“They will be brought from the jail on production warrants for interrogation to know about others involved in the crimes,” he said.
The SSP said one of the accused had hidden a mobile phone in an empty toothpaste cover by cutting open its lower end, while another had hidden the mobile phone in one of his boots.
Hundal did not rule out the possibility of leaking of information about the raid because the inmates had tried to hide objectionable items.
The SSP said on his request, the Gurdaspur deputy commissioner had deployed four duty magistrates for the search of the jail. The raid, which began at 5.30am and ended around 8.30am, was carried out on orders from higher officials, he said.
“The Gurdaspur central jail superintendent, DK Sidhu was very cooperative to the police during the search operation,” he said.
Cops find no drugs at Patti subdivision jail
Sixteen mobile phones were recovered during the raid at the Patti sub jail early on Sunday morning.
The raiding party included sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Amandeep Singh Bhatti, superintendent of police Jagmohan Singh and deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) Davinder Singh Sandhu, Jagjit Singh Rai and Satpal Singh. They were accompanied by 16 inspectors and hundreds of constables.
The raid was conducted at 4am, during which the officials checked all cells. Police have been organising seminars of drug abuse in Tarn Taran district for more than a month, during which people have raised the issue of drugs being used in the Patti jail. During the raid, however, no drugs were recovered, said officials. Sources said the inmates had learnt about the raid a day in advance, due to which they had disposed of all drugs.