A racket of collecting extortion money led by a dreaded criminal, lodged in the Special Sub-Jail at Bhanjanagar in Ganjam district, has been busted. Police said this came to light on Sunday when the police arrested three persons, including two teenaged Plus II students, who allegedly were doing the groundwork outside the prison for undertrial prisoner Siba Jena.
The police registered a case against Jena, an accused in a murder case. He allegedly made extortion calls to a fisheries officer of Bhanjanagar. In December last year, the fisheries officer received a threat call from Jena demanding Rs 10,000. He recorded the call and lodged an FIR.
“We tracked the mobile phone calls and arrested the trio, who were working for the jail inmate,” said Bhanjanagar police station IIC AK Sahu. During interrogation, police came to know that the inmate was also extorting money from some forest officials through his aides. But the officials are yet to lodge any complaint with police, Sahu said.
The incident raised questions on the security system in the sub-jail and exposed prisoners’ access to mobile phones. “We regularly check the prison and belongings of inmates. We did not find any cell phone during raids,” said Superintendent-cum-Jailer Upendra Mohapatra. The sub-jail has 280 inmates against its capacity of 260. Several dreaded criminals and Maoists are lodged in the prison, sources said.
The sub-jail was in the news when an under-trial prisoner was shot dead by his co-inmates near the prison gate in February 2013. After committing the murder, they escaped from the jail. The deceased, Kalia Swain, was a double murder accused, jail sources said.