Facing flak from several quarters after photographs of Puzhal central jail inmates enjoying an extravagant lifestyle emerged few days back, the state police woke up and conducted simultaneous searches in Coimbatore, Salem and Cuddalore central prisons on Sunday.But the surprise searches by police teams that lasted for several hours yielded nothing substantial. In Coimbatore, the team comprising 60 police personnel seized only a handful of beedi and cigarette packets from the inmates. In Cuddalore and Salem prisons, officials said they have not seized any prohibited item during the searches.Even as the searches were on, Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan slammed the state prison department for letting the inmates lead a plush life with electronic gadgets, branded clothes and choicest food.“Prisoners convicted for heinous crimes have been living like grooms in their in-laws houses in the prison,’’ he told reporters at Chennai on Sunday. Radhakrishnan sought action against officials of Puzhal prison for allowing the inmates to enjoy a plush life with televisions sets and mobile phones.Minister for law and prisons C Ve Shanmugam was on defensive stating that he held a meeting with top officials in the prison department and instructed them to take necessary steps to prevent smuggling of mobile phones and banned gadgets into the prison.Stern action would be taken against the prison department personnel, who sneaked in the gadgets and contraband for the inmates, Shanmugam said. On removal of television sets from the ‘A’ class cells in Puzhal prison, he said that though TVs were permitted as per rules inside ‘A’ class cells, they have been removed as the inmates were using it to charge the mobile phones. The television sets may be fixed in the common area.The simultaneous searches in the prisons however turned out to be a dud as nothing concrete was seized. In Coimbatore, a team headed by Central zone Assistant Commissioner (AC) Sundarraj commenced the searches around 6 in the morning. The searches in all the cells of the remand and convict prisoners lasted for three hours. “The team managed to find only a handful of beedis and cigarettes from the cells of convicted prisoners,” said a police officer.Salem prison too saw a flurry of activity with about 40 police personnel going cell to cell, searching for phones and contraband. But the searches yielded nothing. The case was similar in Cuddalore prison too. “No searches were conducted in Vellore central prison. A search was conducted in Cuddalore prison, but the teams have not seized any phones or drugs,” said Vellore range DIG (Prisons) K Jayabharathi.The results of the searches are in contrast to similar raids conducted in the past. Several cellphones have been seized from the inmates of Coimbatore prison in the past and in Salem, it was ganja packets.

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