Madurai city police on Sunday recovered two pen knives, two scissors and few bundles of beedis from various cells in the Central Prison in Madurai.
During a surprise check led by four Assistant Commissioners of Police, the police found small knives made of tin sheets.
A police officer said that the knives, though very small, could be deadly weapons at the hands of the prisoners to hurt each other during brawls among them.
The search that was conducted for nearly two hours also revealed that the prisoners were in possession of 33 bundles of beedis, cigarettes, four cigar lighters and 10 match boxes.
The police, however, did not find any mobile phone or cash with the prisoners.
The police also deployed a bomb detection and disposal squad that conducted a thorough search on the jail premises with the help of a sniffer dog. Only a couple of days back, the jail authorities had seized a mobile phone with SIM, a charger and battery from prisoners of 6th block.
As the prisoners got a wind of the surprise check conducted at around 11.30 p.m., they tried to hide the mobile phone in toilet.
However, they could not succeed in flushing it, a prison source said.
The officials seized Rs. 8,680 from two prisoners.
Only recently, the jail staff also found a prisoner hiding a small pack of ganja in his private parts while being taken back to the jail after producing him in a court.
Around 1,300 prisoners, including convicts and remand prisoners, were lodged in the Central jail here, sources added.
