In the wake of police cracking a terror module and arresting a few terror suspects in Bangalore and Hubli, the State government has decided to install jammers in the Central jails of Mysore, Bangalore, Belgaum and Bellary to prevent the use of 3G-enabled mobile phones by prisoners.
Existing jammers have failed to block calls from 3G-enabled handsets, Minister for Prisons and Social Welfare A. Narayanaswamy told presspersons here on Wednesday.
The government-owned Electronic Corporation of India, Hyderabad, has been asked to install the jammers at an estimated cost of Rs. 7 crore.
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The National Human Rights Commission has recommended providing landline telephone facility for jail inmates but the government will write to the commission as well file an appeal in the High Court of Karnataka seeking an order against such a move.
Despite the presence of jammers, some phone calls were found to have been made from the Bangalore jail to Pakistan about a year ago, the Minister said.
The Central Jail at Parappana Agrahara located on the outskirts of Bangalore has 120 supermax (high-security) cells to lodge terrorists and men from the underworld, he said.
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He said that 80 more supermax cells would be built at the Central Jail at Parappana Agrahara. A sum of Rs. 2 crore would be spent for this.
About 100 high security cells in Bellary would soon be repaired, he said.
The City Crime Branch police a few days ago arrested 14 persons who had links with the banned LeT and HuJI.
A jail constructed by the Public Works Department at Aland in Gulbarga district in 1996 would be demolished.
A Prisoners’ Academy would be set up in Bangalore to rehabilitate inmates, he said.