Two phones still in body, Tihar prisoner awaits relief

Some time in JuneJuly, warders in Tihar jail number 1 raised doubts about Raman Saini (28), a “notorious robber” in police records, since the handheld metal detector beeped every time Saini was checked on his return from a court appearance though a general body search revealed nothing.

In the last week of August, it became clear that the metal triggering the detector was, in fact, lodged in Saini’s stomach. The prisoner at the time told jail officers he had swallowed four cell phones in March to smuggle them into the prison, but had not been able to take them out.

On August 29, he was taken to the DDU hospital, but the X-Ray did not reveal any foreign object in his body. “Doctors at DDU referred him to GB Pant hospital for a CT scan. Around the first week of September, the CT scan and endoscopy did reveal the cell phones inside,” said a prison officer, aware of Saini’s case.

A body scan showed four Kechoada mini cell phones roughly measuring 0.6 inches each in Saini’s stomach. Doctors prescribed an endoscopic surgery. On September 7, doctors at the GB Pant hospital operated on Saini and removed two cell phones. The other two are still there since they need an invasive surgery. It’s been two months since then, and the wait to remove the cellphones has dragged on for Saini. Though prohibited, cell phones are one of the most sought-after in prison.

Doctors said the two remaining phones are stuck in Saini’s pylorus, a muscular valve that holds food in the stomach until it goes to the next stage of digestion.

A doctor, who removed the two phones from Saini’s body, wrote to the Tihar prison administration about the need to remove the other phones surgically. Officials aware of Saini’s case said there was no immediate threat to his health but as the phones would get corroded by stomach acid over a period of time, the phone batteries could prove fatal. “He told some prisoners inside that he did it about a year ago,” said a prison officer, who asked not to be named.

A prison spokesperson said, “After advice from doctors, his date for a CT scan was fixed at DDU hospital but he (Saini) refused to undergo the scan. We have counselled him and will again get a new date for the scan. He is reported to be fine. He is not in pain... We are regularly monitoring his health and counselling him.”

Inmate not a first-time carrier, says doctor

Dr Ashok Dalal, a gastroenterologist at GB Pant hospital, who handled Saini’s case, suggested it may not be the first time that the 28-year-old man swallowed a phone or some other such item.

“This particular prisoner’s check-up showed he was habitually swallowing larger objects such as cell phones. If a person accidentally swallows a cell phone, it will be difficult for him to spew it out because the food pipe will not allow him to vomit an article as large as a cell phone. The walls of the lower oesophagus or the food pipe, in cases like his, become lax because of the person often forcefully ingesting and vomiting large objects,” said Dalal, who has written two research papers on how prisoners swallow prohibited items such as cell phones, drug packets and surgical blades. “In Raman’s case, two phones had entered the stomach which we took out endoscopically. However, two other were stuck in his pylorus which cannot be taken out through an endoscopy procedure. We have referred him for an open surgery,” said a resident doctor who treated Saini.