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Patiala, May 18
Over a dozen senior jail officers face “serious departmental action” or even a “chargesheet” with a probe report pointing to negligence on their part in allowing two Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists lodged in Punjab jails to contact handlers in Pakistan.
The Jail Department has written to the Punjab Government “to take strict action”.
A preliminary probe conducted by IG-Prisons Roop Kumar Arora into the rampant misuse of mobile phones inside state prisons has indicted 14 senior jail officers, including a DIG-level officer.
Sources said since the matter was brought to the state government’s notice by the judiciary, “these indicted officers will face strict action”.
These officers were posted in three jails between 2009 and 2011 when the terrorists got easy access to mobile phones, they said. The Minister for Jails has already warned officials of action if mobile phones are found inside jails. In December 2017, a Jaipur court had written to the Punjab Government to act against erring jail officers for allowing LeT terrorists lodged in state jails to contact handlers.
On December 10, the court had awarded life imprisonment to eight LeT terrorists, two of whom were lodged in Punjab prisons. They were held guilty of criminal conspiracy, recruitment for terror activities and printing counterfeit notes. While Shakkar Ulla was lodged in Nabha jail, Mohammad Iqbal had spent time in Amritsar and Patiala jails.
The Rajasthan Anti-Terror Squad had later taken them into custody after their telephonic conversations with handlers were intercepted.
The 14 officers include a serving DIG-Jails, three DSP-rank officers (who were later promoted) serving as jail superintendents, one jail superintendent (now a PCS-Allied officer), four retired officers and another officer who died a few years ago, suggest documents.
DIG-Jails Lakhminder Singh Jakhar was jail superintendent in Patiala where Mohammad Iqbal was lodged in 2009. The others include serving jail superintendents Sukhwinder Singh, Manjit Singh Kalra, Gurpal Singh Saroya and Jeewan Kumar Garg, who later cleared PCS-Allied, retired superintendents Prem Sagar Sharma, JP Singh, Gursharan Singh Sidhu, Balbir Singh Bisla and deceased deputy superintendent Charanjit Singh Bhangoo.
The report states that these officers were posted in three jails — Central Jails of Amritsar and Patiala, and Maximum Security Jail, Nabha.
The Jaipur court had slammed the jail officers for giving a “free hand” to the accused in jails. The court asked the home departments of Rajasthan and Punjab to take action against the erring officials. DGP (Prisons) IPS Sahota said: “We received the orders and the government ordered a probe. Our probe established 14 officials were guilty of misconduct and negligence during their posting in these jails.”
