Jamshedpur, Nov 01: Following jail break incident in Bhopal, the district police have sounded an alert at the jails.
Jails, which are especially located on the districts bordering Bengal and Chhatisgarh have been directed to set up their security arrangements fearing retaliation from the ultras too. The security of the Ghatshila sub-divisional jail and Ghaghidih Central Jail has been enhanced.
Sources went on to inform that concerned over the situation, the administration has stepped up vigilance and deployed additional security forces.
A district official said that superintendents of all the jails and SP’s of concerned districts have been asked to tighten security. ” We have been asked to keep a vigil.
We are concerned over the situation and have directed the jail authorities to conduct random checking of cells and prisoner wards where undertrials who are facing trials in naxal related cases are lodged,” said he.
In addition to that, they have also been directed to regularly hold meeting on jail security, which was not being followed properly. �Until meetings are held regularly on the issue, how they will come to know what was happening inside the jails,� he said.
When asked whether the jails in Jharkhand were also vulnerable to such incidents, the Jail IG said it could happen anywhere that is why one needs to take preventive measures to check any such occurrence in future.
The Jail officials in the State, however, were of the view that such incidents were not possible in Jharkhand as proper security measures were taken here to prevent such incidents.
Apart from this, he said, jail administration has been asked to initiate proper examining of visitors and also jail inmates. The senior prison authority has also instructed jail administration to ensure that the personnel deployed at the watch towers of the jails keep extra vigil on movement of inmates.
Superintendent of Ghaghidih Central Jail, Subodh Kumar inspected the Ghatshila sub-divisional jail to review the security arrangement. “Our idea is also to ensure proper security in the premises of jails. Several notorious naxals are at the jail and we are taking all possible steps to ensure that incidents of jailbreaks which took place earlier in Chaibasa and Seraikela may not recur here,” said Kumar.
On the other hand, Ghatshila jail was built in 1980. It has space to hold 170 undertrials, but is home to 220 inmates at present, of whom around 30 are dreaded activists of banned outfit CPI ( Maoist). Though the jail has 12 wards, the condition of two is so poor that the jail authorities have been forced to shut them down, leaving the undertrials stuffed in 10 wards.
