Bank accounts of suspects under scanner: Official

JAIPUR: The probe following the arrest of three men, including a jailor of the Ajmer Central Jail, on Thursday has revealed that a bribery racket t h a t wa s unearthed in the jail in July this year involved payouts of Rs 25 lakh per month, said an anticorruption bureau (ACB) official on Friday.

Five employees of the Ajmer jail, including the jailor arrested on Thursday, had been under the ACB’S scanner since the racket came to light in July.

Various bank accounts suspected to have been used in the bribery racket are also under the bureau’s scanner, the ACB official said.

The official said that while analysing transcripts of call records of the four employees arrested in July, details of various accounts in which the bribery amount was deposited were obtained.

“While analysing the transcripts, six bank accounts had surfaced in which the family members of prisoners used to deposit the bribe money. Furt he r , t hr o ug h t he s e b a nk accounts money was transferred to the jailors as part of the bribery racket,” said Madandan Singh, additional superintendent of ACB, Ajmer region.

“We have arrested one such bank account holders, Sita Ram (give age), on Friday,” he said.

Sita Ram is said to be a middle man. “Similarly, Rs 9 lakh bribery amount was obtained from the account of another middle man named Rajendra Choudhary (24), who was arrested on Thursday,” Singh said.

Singh said in the last few months around Rs 3.5 lakh were transferred by the family members of the inmates into bank accounts.

Rajendra, along with Anil Choudhary ( 2 7 ) , c ol l e c t e d money from the relatives of jail inmates on behalf of Jaswant Singh (42) the jailor of Ajmer Central Jail, in lieu of providing them various products and services banned inside the jail.

Anil and Jaswant were also arrested on Thursday.

The accused jail employees used to collect around Rs 25 lakh per month through the racket, the ACB official said.

Another senior ACB official on condition of anonymity said that the relatives of inmates had to pay money for various products such as tobacco and cigarettes.

“The rate charged for one packet of cigarette was between Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000 and a packet of tobacco would cost between Rs 300 and Rs 500,” the officer added.

Since the racket was busted in July this year, 13 people have been arrested including jail employees, two prisoners and other relatives of a prisoner.

ACB officials said that the staff of other jails are also on their radar as they have received similar complaints from other jails.