Jamshedpur, Aug 23: Ghaghidih Central Jail at Karandih in Parsudih is slowly emerging as a hot bed of deadly coronavirus. Several inmates along with the staff have also started getting infected with Coronavirus. In the last 24 hours 38 inmates have tested positive for the virus.
Apart from prisoners of the central jail, several staff members have reported the Coronavirus positive leading the jail administration to put the three in isolation inside the jail.
Revealing about the situation in Ghaghidih Central Jail, superintendent, Narendra Kumar Singh said that they had started putting the jail staff under test for the Coronavirus since Wednesday. With the increase in testing the positive cases have also risen. There are about 300 jail guards and jail administrative staff in the central jail.
As there was no case of Coronavirus positive among the prisoners inside the jail, the jail-guards as well as the administrative staff and their family members were put to the Covid test. From about 60 staff, nine were tested positive on Thursday. In the last few days 38 fresh cases have been reported.
Spread over 20 acres of land, the Ghaghidih Central Jail has a prisoners’ capacity of 1,447. Presently, the central jail has 16 CCTV cameras out of which only four are operational whereas the rest 12 have gone out of order due to poor maintenance. There have been frequent clashes between undertrial prisoners in the jail. Gangs owing allegiance to gangster Paramjeet Singh and Akhilesh Singh battled inside the jail on March 20, 2008. While Paramjeet was shot dead, another convict belonging to the rival group was lynched.
Meanwhile, the administration had converted the old Sakchi jail into a quarantine centre for prisoners. He said a decision was taken to convert the Sakchi Jail into a quarantine centre as it will help in reducing the risk of other jail inmates getting infected with the killer virus.
