The district jail, on Monday, emerged as a centre of fresh controversy with the undertrials in the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case allegedly using cellphones to access social networking sites and post their photographs from prison.
The photographs appeared on the Facebook accounts of Kirmani Manoj and Kodi Suni. Over 100 of their images, taken within the jail compound in civil clothes, were found posted on their Facebook walls.
The warders, however, could not find the phones in a search conducted after the news broke.
(Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, speaking to presspersons in Kottayam, said he would visit the prison on Tuesday. The Director General of Police (Prisons), Alexander Jacob, would accompany him. The Minister said a team comprising State Police Chief K.S. Balasubramanian, Home Secretary L. Radhakrishnan and Mr. Jacob would conduct an investigation. He suspected the role of mobile service providers in rendering the mobile jammers of the prison ineffective for commercial gains. This would be investigated).
Secret calls
The details of secret calls made by Kirmani Manoj and Kodi Suni also came out on Monday.
The details accessed by the prison authorities showed that the duo had frequently contacted two persons for recharging their cellphones and passing information to friends.
It is the second time recently that the jail authorities are being held responsible for violation of jail rules by undertrials in the case. A few weeks ago, the jail authorities had come in for criticism for allowing P. Mohanan, an accused in the T.P. Chandrasekharan case, to meet his wife in a restaurant.
Protesting against the latest development, workers of the Revolutionary Marxist Party took out a march to the jail. They alleged that the Home Department was responsible for allowing the murder accused break the prison rules.