PANJIM: The Prisons Department is contemplating taking disciplinary action against officials at Central Jail, Colvale for serious lapses following a news report in Herald pointing at flaws in the entire system at the state-of-the-art facility.
A crackdown on rampant use of mobile phones is also likely, in yet another move to ensure smuggling of banned items are not repeated. The jail officials are already on record about seizure of 91 phones from October 2019 to 2020 wherein maximum 67 mobile phones and 93 chargers were recovered from different Blocks on October 24, 2019.
Herald, in its edition on August 10, reported about authorities’ silence over the Crime Branch’s findings into a high level inquiry after notorious goon Anwar Shaikh alias Tiger’s videos shot somewhere in April 2020 in Block 4 of Colvale Jail had gone viral. The report was submitted to the government in December 2020.
Sources said that the jail guard, who had lent his phone to Anwar and gang to shoot the dramatic videos, is identified. A disciplinary action is being proposed against him while other officials named in the report besides their superiors – posted in the Jail – could also face the heat. The CB’s inquiry report had held jail officers responsible for failing to act tough on alleged nefarious activities within the jail premises.
To thwart further attempt of smuggling of banned substances within the Jail premises, the department has proposed the government for baggage scanners, door frame metal detectors and hand held metal detectors.
