PRISONS HQ TIGHTENS BAN ON SUPPLY OF ITEMS FROM OUTSIDE

LUCKNOW: The UP Prisons headquarters has issued a directive to all jails across the state to not allow any items for prisoners sent by their family members and relatives from outside, citing fears about the spread of the Covid-19 infection inside jail premises, said senior police officials here on Wednesday. They said the director general of prison Anand Kumar had issued this directive on Tuesday and asked for its strict compliance till further orders.

The DG has stated in the order that the jailer and superintendent will be held responsible jointly if the directive is violated in jails. A senior police official said although the order regarding not allowing any item from outside was issued earlier at the time of the pandemic outbreak last year, it was revised after fixing the responsibility of the jailer and the superintendent in case of violations.

He said the reason for the ban was to curb the spread of infection inside jails, but many people surmised that last week’s Chitrakoot jail shootout was one of the reasons for the fresh order. He said the notorious shooter Anshu Dixit managed to have a pistol smuggled inside the Chitrakoot jail despite multiple checks at the entrance and it was apprehended that it was smuggled with the items sent from outside the prison.

Earlier, on May 14, Anshu had used the pistol to shoot dead two gangsters Mukeem alias Kala and Meraj Ahmad alias Merajudeen inside the prison before himself being killed in police firing. The state government had suspended jail superintendent SP Tripathi and jailer Mahendra Pal, holding them responsible for the security lapses initially and ordered a departmental inquiry.

JAILER AND SUPERINTENDENT WOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE JOINTLY IF THE DIRECTIVE IS VIOLATED IN JAILS