Bengaluru: Arms, ganja & phones recovered from central jail

Bengaluru: Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Saturday took the prisoners at the Bengaluru Central Jail surprise by conducting extensive raids. The prison also known as Prappana Agrahara jail houses many notorious criminals. The police seized knives/daggers, marijuana, smoking pipes, mobile phones and sim cards from the inmates.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Sandeep Patil, said, "To monitor rowdy activities inside the prison, we conducted raids at Parappana Agrahara jail today at 5 am and seized mobile phones, sim cards, knives/daggers, ganja, smoking pipes and other banned items. Further investigation is on." The sources claim that the inmates who were having weapons, contraband, and mobile phones will be questioned in detail and cases will be booked against them. Since they are already in prison they will be questioned in the jail itself and cases under Arms Act, NDPS Act will be registered against respective prisoners.

"All the sims and mobiles will be analysed and an inquiry conducted as to who allowed the inmates to have these weapons and what was the purpose of having them," Sandeep Patil further added.

The CCB team is said to be verifying the role of the prison authorities for allowing prisoners to have weapons, drugs, and use mobile phones. The weapons were found in possession of notorious rowdies, who reportedly told police that they carried the weapons for their self-defense from other rowdies in the prison. The seized mobile phones, pen drives will be sent to Forensic Science Laboratory for analysis and to get information about the associates of the rowdies and their activities.

Parappana Agrahara Central Prison is the largest in Karnataka, spread over 40 acres. It houses more than 4,000 prisoners with 810 barracks.