BENGALURU: Following a departmental inquiry into alleged irregularities, including corruption at Central Prison, Parappana Agrahara, the government on Monday transferred seven head warders (equivalent to police head constables in rank).
The seven transferred officials were in charge of various barracks, mostly housing undertrial prisoners arrested in cases like robbery, attempt-to-murder, murder, dacoity and burglaries.
In January, media, with video evidence, had reported how some prison officials were hand in glove with inmates. One such video showed a head warder accepting money from an undertrial prisoner for doling out personal favours. The inmate who distributed money was a historysheeter and handed over the same to enjoy ‘privileges’, the investigations revealed.
Accordingly, the government formed a committee headed by senior IPS officer S Murugan to carry out an inquiry and submit a report. Murugan and his team submitted a report, which affirmed the irregularities and threw light on the unholy nexus between inmates and prison officials. According to the report, 18 prison officials were identified for violating prison rules.
Surprisingly, no suspension has been made so far, pointed out an ex-IPS officer.
Director general of police (prisons and correctional services) Alok Mohan told TOI they will soon decide on taking action against the remaining 11 prison officials.
Asked if he has any plan to implement stricter rules inside state prisons, Mohan said: “For transparent scanning and frisking, we have already deployed men from Karnataka Industrial Security Force (KISF) in all the central prisons in the state. Also, there over 1,000 CCTV cameras installed in these prisons to monitor prison officials as well as inmates. But it will not stop here. As and when required, we will introduce new safety methods to ensure corruption-free prisons.”
