The case of ‘supari killing’ by a gangster, who was using mobile phone inside Tihar Jail, has once again raised serious concerns about the surveillance in the Asia’s largest and India’s ‘most-secured’ prison. The Delhi Police Crime Branch has written to the Tihar Jail authority about the lapses and security breach by the inmates, who are using mobiles and running their rackets with impunity. The Crime Branch’s letter was necessitated after the investigations found that certain gangsters lodged inside the Tihar Jail were planning ‘supari killing’ and were constantly in touch with collaborators through mobile phones.
A senior police official told The Pioneer that they have traced several numbers which are being used on the Tihar premises and they have written to the Jail authority informing them about the lapses. Shaukat Pasha, who is facing charges of 60 criminal cases and also a convict in one of them, was found using mobile phones from inside the jail for the past two months.
Sources said Pahsha, who is lodged in jail number 8, was using multiple numbers to be in contact with his associates. He used to instruct them about the plan and was also in touch with various other people like Sanjeev Kumar, the suspended IAS officer, who was arrested by the Crime Branch for hatching a criminal conspiracy on Friday. Source also said that Pasha talked to Kumar for at least 20 times for making the deal fix and executing the plan.
The police have suspected that Pasha might have been involved in criminal activities despite being behind the bars. According to Tihar Jail spokesperson Mukesh Prasad, there are various sources through which the mobiles phones are smuggled into the prison but the authorities are working on the lapses.
“The prison authority is actively working in this direction. In the past two months, we have recovered 48 mobile phones from various jails,” said Prasad. The jail administration has requested the Government to provide more jammers for covering the areas which are out of range of the installed jammers.
Pasha entered into the world of crime after gunning down the killers of his uncle in 1995. Thereafter, he committed several robberies in Delhi and eastern Uttar Pradesh. In 2009, he killed Abdul Hafiz in Jamia Nagar and had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.