Jaipur:
Unable to keep a check on smuggling of mobile phones inside jails, the state government is considering a proposal to constitute a special cell to probe such instances.
Sources said the home department has received a proposal in this regard from the prison officials.
The need to have specialised cell is being felt in the wake of a number of instances of mobile recovery from jails and cases in which calls have been made from inside the jails for committing crime.
The proposed special cell by probing a select few cases of illegal possession of mobile phones and smuggling is expected to help keeping a check over this practice by zeroing in on a few common sources which have been actively engaged in smuggling of mobile phones.
Sources disclosed that the investigations could not be completed in to a large number of recoveries as no criminal case could be registered following the recovery.
"Police can carry out the investigations only after a case is registered. But keeping a mobile phone does not amount to any criminal case. It is only a violation of rules. As a result no official investigation is being carried further out in such cases by the police," said a senior police official. Formation of special cells can help identify a few cases and work on a common trend, about smuggling which could emerge out of the probe, he added.
The need for such a special cell was being felt as despite stricter measures having been taken in the wake of a rise in the recovery of mobile phones from the prisons, jail officials have not been able to keep a check over the growing menace. "We have taken a number of measures to keep a check over smuggling and illegal possession of mobile phones in the prisons. The inmates are shifted to new cells after a while and the duties of staff too are changed to different places regularly to minimise the chances of collusion. Yet there are no fool proof measures against the practice," admitted DG (jail) Omendra Bhardwaj.
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