Following the complaints of irregularities in jails, the State government conducted massive raids at all the district and central jails during which several articles were recovered from the prisoners' cells. In lucknow, a police team consisting of District magistrate, DIG lucknow range and other police and district administration officials raided the lucknow Jail in Gossainganj. During the surprise raid, the 'objectionable items' like 'lighters, Gutkha,' were found from the bags of jail inmates. The raiding team seized all the recovered items. The team later issued show cause notices with strict warning to the wardens of these barracks. The district magistrate issued strict instructions to check the visitors, Jail staff and the inmates returning to jail after their scheduled court appearances and instructed the officials to ensure that objectionable items did not be transported to Jail premises. The officials also talked to the inmates who complained of delay in medical check ups for referred cases.
The jail officials explained that the delay was caused due to unavailability of police force. Administration has instructed the jail staff to arrange for special medical camps for these referred cases in Balrampur hospital on every second Saturday (on these days courts are closed and the same force is available for these referred cases). The concerned officials have been asked to get repaired the cracks that developed due to earthquakes last month.
The officials were asked to ensure speedy repair works on CCTVs. The Jail Superintendent was asked to ensure that the jail campus be a 'No tobacco zone' in next 3 to 4 months by strict enforcement of legal provisions and awareness camps. It surfaced that 'Jammers' and 'Computers sets for visitors’ management system, which is needed for modernization of jail, are yet to be supplied by 'Jail Head quarters. In Gorakhpur jail, a mobile phone and a bank cheque book were recovered while in several other jails, mobile phones, chargers, knives, blades and other banned items, including drugs and empty bottles of liquor and beer, were also found.
In Pratapgarh jail, authorities seized empty bottles of liquor and beer while some drugs were also recovered from the cells. In Farrukhabad jail, authorities recovered Ganja, lighter, mobile chargers and blades. Official sources here today said the raids were conducted by authorities headed by District Magistrate and SP. The raids were conducted at jails in various districts, including Saharanpur, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Agra, lucknow, Hardoi, Basti, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Ghazaipur, Moradabad, Kannauj, Deoria, Sidharthangar,Varanasi and Allahabad. Sources said the officials checked the cells and took the stock of the articles used by the inmates. large contingent of police force also accompanied with the authorities inside the jail to prevent any outburst by prisoners.