The murder of a prisoner has brought the police authorities on the toes. Following a prisoner’s murder by a fellow inmate at Ghaghidih Central Jail, the authorities have been directed to strengthen the security arrangements in the prison.
"We are taking the necessary security measures to ensure that no clash between the inmates take place inside the prison," said a jail official. He pointed out that before taking any such decision, he would try his best to keep all the prisoners and under-trials at Ghaghidih jail itself. He stated that he would even request the district police to provide an extra security cover inside the jail if the situation so arises.
The matter took an ugly turn when Pankaj Dubey, a lifer, was assaulted inside the barrack by Manoj Singh (of Akhilesh Singh gang). Later, Pankaj came out of the barrack with his men and clashed with the rival gang.
Superintendents of all the jails and SPs of concerned districts have been asked to tighten security. "We are concerned over the situation and have directed the jail authorities to conduct random checking of cells and prisoner wards where under-trial persons, facing trials in extremism-related cases are lodged," said the official.
Apart from this, he said, jail administration has been asked to initiate proper examining of visitors and also jail inmates. The senior prison authority has also instructed jail administration to ensure that the personnel, deployed at the watch towers of the jails, keep extra vigil on movement of inmates. Elaborating on the latest steps, he said that he has also requested the SPs to keep in contact with the jail administration for better co-ordination.
Security of the Ghaghidih Central Jail, located on the outskirts of the steel city, was also beefed up. Altogether, 18 extremists are lodged in the central jail for their involvement in different LWE-related cases.
Notably, the Ghaghidih Central Jail lacks adequate security. Jail sources revealed that against a sanctioned strength of 192, the jail has only 71 security personnel.
Spread over 20 acres of land, the Ghaghidih Central Jail has a prisoners' capacity of 1,447.
Presently, the central jail has 16 CCTV cameras out of which only four are operational where as the rest 12 have gone out of order due to poor maintenance.
There have been frequent clashes between undertrial prisoners in the jail. Gangs, owing allegiance to gangster Paramjeet Singh and Akhilesh Singh, battled inside the jail on March 20, 2008. While Paramjeet was shot dead, another convict, belonging to the rival group, was lynched.