The Tihar jail administration has sought the local police’s help and pressed its own security personnel to patrol outside the jail’s premises after more sophisticated plans in response to the extortion rackets being operated from inside the jail eventually failed. The attempt is to prevent outsiders from throwing in a range of contrabands.
Around a dozen personnel from the Tamil Nadu Special Police and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police have been deployed on round-the-clock patrolling duty outside the jail’s boundary wall along a 400-metre stretch that separates the jail from the residential area of Janakpuri C-Block.
Besides, one or two police control room (PCR) vans have been stationed at vulnerable spots at almost all times. According to the jail authorities, the short height of the boundary wall makes it possible for accomplices and family members of inmates to throw across SIM cards, mobile phone batteries, and blades. In the last few months, the authorities have even spotted several “tennis balls” on the jail premises. For sometime, the jail officials were tricked into believing that the balls or the socks accidentally landed inside while children were playing outside.
However, they discovered that these balls and socks were being used by associates inside the jail to hold a supply of SIM cards, surgical blades and contrabands for inmates. The tennis balls were split into half to conceal the banned substances before being stitched again and flung across the boundary wall which is around 15 feet high.
The jail officials had initially planned to increase the height of the boundary wall or install nets. “We tightened the security at the entry points after which the accomplices started these tricks,” said an official.
“A proposal from the Public Works Department allowed increasing the boundary wall height up to 40 feet. When we analysed the proposal, we came to the conclusion that the wall needed to be at least 80 feet high to keep balls out,” Mukesh Prasad, DIG and PRO of Delhi Prisons, told The Hindu .
He said increasing the height to 80 feet and installing nets across the boundary was not a feasible plan. The jail authorities then came up with the idea of police patrol. Some personnel from the Tamil Nadu Special Police and ITBP, who take care of the security inside the jail, were put in charge.
“The system has been in place for around a month,” said Mr. Prasad, adding, it is being seen as a permanent and effective solution. The jail authorities also consulted the local police for help. “The police have deployed one or two PCR vehicles on the road outside the jail number four and on jail road from where most of these incidents are reported,” said Mr. Prasad.
