Wi-Fi alive, mobile jammer dead at Baghpat prison cells

MEERUT: A Wi-Fi dongle and two mobile phones recovered during a raid by state police brass from Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat jail flew in the face of jail administration which had assured “foolproof security” after the sensational murder of dreaded gangster Munna Bajrangi inside the prison last year.

Accompanied by a special team, inspector general (IG) of Meerut range Alok Singh and Meerut Commissioner Anita Meshram carried out the surprise inspection of the jail cells on Tuesday.

They were stunned to find the devices. There was more surprise in store for the officers when they found out that there was no mobile phone jammer in the prison premises.

“Metal door detector was also not functional. And, out of 30 CCTV cameras, 10 were not working,” IG Singh said.

Apart from these recoveries, several other irregularities have also come to the fore. The jail has only 41 security personnel against the sanctioned strength of 126 posts. “There were 892 inmates lodged in the prison, against the capacity of 660,” the IG said.

Based on the findings of the raid, a report was sent to the state government on Thursday.

When contacted, UP’s director general of prison administration and reform services, Anand Kumar, said, “These inspections are part of our efforts to improve functioning of our jail. These raids never happened at such regular intervals before. We are also persuading district administration to conduct raids every month.”

“In another corrective measure, prison officials have also been barred from taking their mobile phones beyond the administrative block. More such reforms are in the pipeline,” the DG (prison) said. The recovery comes despite strict directives by the state government to beef-up security in prisons across the state.

Dreaded gangster Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi was shot dead inside Baghpat district jail allegedly by another gangster Sunil Rathi on July 9, 2018, hours before he was to be produced in a local court in an extortion case. Soon after Bajrangi’s murder, UP government had formed a three-member committee under former UP DGP Sulkhan Singh to suggest measures for jail reforms and strengthen security inside jail premises.

The panel also visited Baghpat jail and had raised concerns over poor security there. In June this year, the UP government had dismissed the then Baghpat jailor Uday Pratap Singh in whose tenure Bajrangi was killed. He was later sacked for his alleged laxity which led to the murder of the gangster.