FRIDAY, MAY 03, 2024
Team Herald
Panjim: The escape incidents from Central Jail, Colvale has exposed the flaws in the security cover around the state-of-the-art structure, commissioned four years ago in May 2016.
To plug in the loopholes, the Prisons Department has now proposed that the government strengthens security at the jail, including the repair or replacement of non-functional CCTV cameras installed at the premises. Inspector General of Prisons Gurudas Pilarnkar has submitted a detailed proposal to the government seeking enhancement of security as well as substitution of Goa Human Resource Development Corporation (GHRDC) security personnel with additional IRB jawans.
“The IRBians and GHRDC security personnel are deployed at the main gates and entry points, although frisking and checking of staff, visitors and prisoners are mandatorily carried out by the IRB. We have suggested that GHRDC staff be replaced with additional IRB personnel at these points only. The GHRDC security can nevertheless manage registers at these areas and continue to be at guard inside the jail including barracks,” Pilarnkar said while speaking to Herald.
A rape under trial from Tamil Nadu, Ramchandra Yellapa is the recent escape about one month after another under trial Hemraj Baradwaj of Himachal Pradesh fled from the jail. Both supposedly jumped off the wall and are still untraceable.
The proposal, Pilarnkar added, also seeks to fit barb wires on the top of the walls to deter escape attempts by the inmates in the future. “A few CCTV cameras are not operational due to technical glitches. We have sought to repair or replace these,” he said as more security measures have been proposed afresh to the State.
The dept, sources said, has also decided to tighten the noose around erring jail officials in the wake of such incidents.
