The East Singhbhum district administration on Sunday conducted a massive raid at Ghaghidih Central Jail in the outskirts of the city early morning following intelligence reports that a major explosion may take place in the jail.
led by senior administrative team comprising deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal, senior superintendent of police Richard lakra, superintendent of police (city) Kartik S and deputy superintendent of police (law and order) Kanhaiya Upadhaya the raid was conducted.
Sources went on to that the team recovered a cell-phone, pen-drives, two micro chips, some computer accessories and Rs 9,000 cash from the inmates in the central jail here.
When contacted, senior superintendent of police said that the raid was carried out on the basis of intelligence inputs that major jails in the Jharkhand are under threat of attack.
"We had received intelligence report that there may be terrorist attack in any of the jails in Jharkhand. Therefore we carried out the raid, which continued for more than three hours," said senior SP.
lakra said they carried out the raid in anticipation of detecting explosives from the premises of the central jail.
The district administration has increased strict vigil at Ghaghidih jail after police seized objectionable objects. Sources went on to inform that concerned over the situation at the jail the administration has stepped up vigilance and deployed additional security forces.
During the raid the team frisked both remand prisoners and convicts lodged in separate blocks. They also checked more than 300 police personnel deployed in the complex for several hours and the search operations was conducted using sniffer dogs and bomb detector.
"The recovery of SIM Cards, two pen drives is matter of great concern and we are have increased the vigil and at present in process to scan the pen drives and chips," said a police official.
He pointed out that the instruction for conducting the raid had come from the state home department, and that as soon as the instruction came the police and administrative officers had come into action.
At present the Ghaghidih Central Jail has over 1,300 inmates. Of these 13 undertrials are facing naxal related cases. Similar raids were also conducted at Seraikela Divisional Jail and in Ghatshila Sub-divisional Jail at Dhlabhumgarh.
Notably, the Ghaghidih Central Jail is spread over an area of 20 acres — set up on as large an area as Birsa Munda Central Jail in Hotwar, Ranchi. The home department had conducted a survey of the jail in June 2009 before the recommendation for fixing mobile jammers in the jail.