117 Mobile Phones Recovered In Delhi Jails Amid Crackdown, 5 Prison Officials Suspended

Director-General (Prisons) Sanjay Baniwal had constituted a special vigilance team at Prison Headquarters for a major crackdown on the smuggling of communication gadgets into jails.

New Delhi: The Prisons department in Delhi has suspended five officials following the recovery of mobile phones from the Mandoli jail. The officials include two deputy superintendents, one assistant superintendent, one head warder, and one warder, news agency PTI reported officials as saying on Friday. It was further informed that Director-General (Prisons) Sanjay Baniwal has directed all jail superintendents to form search teams and detect mobile phones and other prohibited articles in their prisons.

As per PTI, the suspended five jail officials are Deputy Superintendents Pradeep Sharma and Dharmender Maurya, Assistant Superintendent Sunny Chandra, Head Warder Lokesh Dhama, and Warder Hansraj Meena, prison officials said.

117 mobile phones were recovered by members of jail staff during search operations conducted in all prisons in the last fortnight. These seizures will continue in the future, the officials said.

Director-General (Prisons) Sanjay Baniwal had constituted a special vigilance team at Prison Headquarters for a major crackdown on the smuggling of communication gadgets into jails.

The team, along with 104 Tamil Nadu Special Police personnel, conducted a raid on December 18, leading to the recovery of eight mobile phones.

In November last year, IPS officer Sanjay Beniwal from the 1989 batch was appointed as the new Director General (Prisons) of the Tihar Jail in Delhi after former DG (Prisons) Sandeep Goel was transferred. This was done after jailed conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar accused him of extorting over Rs 12 crore as "protection money".

After a month, Former Delhi Prisons chief Sandeep Goel was suspended by the Ministry of Home Affairs. 

Sukesh Chandrashekhar's Allegations

Jailed conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who is facing several cases of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Money Laundering Act had written to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena alleging that he was forced to pay Rs 10 crore "protection money" to the Aam Aadmi Party minister Satyender Jain. Chandrashekhar claimed that he had known the AAP leader since 2015.

Chandrashekhar also alleged that he has been receiving threats and was under pressure from Minister Satyendar Jain and Sandeep Goel, the then Director General of Prison, Delhi, over corruption and extortion.