With the inmates frequently erupting in violence, the scared Jailor, Suddhowala jail based in Dehradun, has sought additional security from Dehradun SSP Pushpak Jyoti on Wednesday evening.
Acting on the threat perception of the Jailor, SSP Jyoti formed a team and asked it to review security within the prison campus.
However, Mahendra Singh Gwal, the Jailor, did not disclose the names of the persons who threatened him. Nor has he disclosed the source of the perceived threat.
Notably, the then Deputy Jailor Nagendra Singh was shot dead by two bike-borne assailants, aides of dreaded gangster Sunil Rathi, at Roorkee prison in October 2011. Singh was a relative of Gwal, it is learnt.
Observers feel that the threat perception is genuine, given the fact that a number of hardcore criminals from western Uttar Pradesh like Sunil Rana, DP Yadav, Prakash Pandey, Intezar Pahalwan and lakarpala are presently lodged in Suddhowala jail.
With security breach incidents happening in the jails across the state at regular intervals over the past few years, the state government recently handed over the administration of jails to an IPS officer, rupturing the longstanding tradition of leaving things to an IAS.
However, things are vegetating with the state administration not providing the jail administration with adequate officers and
infrastructure. Recruitment for the posts in the jails lying vacant for ages is weighing heavily on those who are running the jails.
Seemingly frustrated with things remaining stuck in the bogs of apathy, a senior police officer recently wondered whether there is any
department in the state as well as in the country where 75 per cent of the posts remain vacant for years.