Mobiles seized, handed over to Central Agencies

KOCHI: The state government had handed over 120 mobile phones seized from major jails across the state to the Central investigating agencies to check for any terror links, Director General of Police (Prisons) Alexander Jacob submitted before the Kerala High Court on Wednesday.
The jail officials had earlier found that terror accused Thadiyantevida Nazir used mobile phones while he was in Kannur Central Prison. The affidavit, which came before the court on Wednesday, consists of suggestions to reform the jails in the state. The affidavit stated that strict instructions had been given to middle-level officers to conduct surprise checks in jails to find out contraband articles used by prisoners.

“The surveillance system with closed circuited television and control monitoring units have been installed in central prisons at Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram to prevent illegal activities of prisoners. The surveillance systems will be extended to other jails also,” the affidavit said. The court then asked the state to consider the reforms suggested by Director General of Police (Prisons). Justice N K Balakrishnan issued the directive on a suo motu proceeding initiated by the court to check illegal activities pertaining to special treatment given to a class of prisoners.
According to the DGP (Prisons), the state may grant permission to conduct effective and frequent searches in jails by a squad at regular intervals, headed by an officer in the rank of SP, Central Prison. Modern equipment like body scanners should be installed at the main gates of prisons to check illegal trafficking of contraband articles such as ganja.
The hospitals attached to the central prisons have to be equipped with modern facilities. The services of special doctors should be made available at these hospitals to curtail the chances of inmates to misuse the facilities available in outside hospitals. Alexander Jacob had pointed out that shortage of staff contributes to the illegal trafficking of contraband articles.
In 1993, the state had appointed a committee to study and suggest the recommendations to be implemented for improving jail conditions. The committee had made 227 recommendations, of which majority are yet to be implemented. The remaining recommendations should be implemented within a stipulated time frame.
 The department installed mobile jammers in  Kannur Central Prison to prevent the use of mobile phones, but it was not functioning up to the mark due to technical reasons. The department is looking for the sophisticated versions of mobile jammers including, the possibility of upgrading the present one, DGP (Prisons) said.