THE STATE government has suspended the superintendent, jailor and deputy jailor of Azamgarh district jail in connection with the March 15 incident where prisoners had allegedly attacked a team of police and district administration who had found 35 cellphones from the barracks during a search operation. The action was taken on the basis of an inquiry report submitted by DIG, Prisons, Azamgarh and district magistrate, Azamgarh. Advertising The prisons department has also sought permission to transfer 25 prisoners in Azamgarh jail, who were identified as troublemakers, to another jail. The suspended officers are superintendent Anil Kumar Gautam, jailor Harish Kumar and deputy jailor, Bhola Nath Ambedkar, said Additional Inspector General (Prison), Sharad Kulshreshtha. When contacted, District Magistrate, Shivakant Dwivedi, said, “In the preliminary report sent to the government, I have mentioned about recovery of 35 cellphones from the jail barracks and it is a responsibility of jail officials to ensure that no objectionable items are taken inside the jail. I had recommended for action against the senior officials.” He added, “A detailed inquiry by Additional District Magistrate (Finance) and Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) is still on. The officials are looking into the laxity of other staff of the jail.” Two prisoners, Vinay Pandey and Kaleem – then lodged in same barrack- had got into a fight over a trivial issue and Kaleem’s associates had attacked Vinay, leaving him injured. The next day, a team of district administration and police conducted search inside the barracks and recovered cellphones. When the team was walking back after the search, the prisoners attacked them, pelting stones. Police had to resort to lathicharge to control the inmates. Aligarh prison warder suspended Advertising A warder in Aligarh district jail was suspended after he allegedly provided a cellphone to a jailed gangster who made an extortion call to a jeweller in Agra. The gangster, Billu Verma, is lodged at Aligarh jail in connection with an attempt to murder case. Aligarh jail superintendent, Alok Singh, has started departmental inquiry after suspending the warder Narendra Bhadauria. Station House Officer, Hari Parwat (Agra), Praveen Kumar, informed, a jeweller, Anand Kumar had lodged a complaint alleging to have received a extortion call on March 17. “Anand Kumar said the caller identified himself as Billu Verma and demanded Rs 5 lakh as extortion money. The caller also threatened him with serious consequences if the money was not delivered.” “We shared details of the case with Aligarh jail superintendent where Billu Verma is lodged. Billu, who is a historysheeter, belongs to Hari Parwat area of Agra. The Agra police had arrested Billu for an attack on Anand Kumar in 2012 and he has been lodged in jail since then,” informed SHO. Jail superintendent, Alok Singh, informed, “We questioned Billu Verma about the call and he admitted to have made the call to Anand Kumar from cellphone provided by warder Narendra Bhadauria. Billu also told that he had returned the cellphone to Narendra the next day.” “We also questioned Narendra who admitted to have provided cellphone to Billu Verma. He told us that the cellphone he gave to Billu belongs to a relative of a jail inmate, Rohit. Narendra said he had returned the cellphone to Rohit’s relative later. I have suspended Narendra Bhadauria and started departmental proceedings against him. I did not file FIR against Narendra Bhadauria as the cellphone has not been recovered. The Agra police will further probe the role of Bhadauria,” said Alok Singh. ASP, Agra (City), Prashant Verma, said, “We will seeking a report from the jail and will question the warder on the basis of the investigation.”

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