MEERUT: Uday Pratap Singh, the suspended jailer of Baghpat jail where dreaded don Munna Bajrangi was gunned down by a fellow inmate on Monday morning, is not new to facing disciplinary action. In 2016 he had faced two suspensions in Orai and Gorakhpur jails.The first incident occurred on January 8, 2016 wherein four prisoners managed to escape from Orai jail in Jalaun district after cutting the iron bars using a sawblade. At that time the then inspector-general (IG) of jails Devender Chauhan had suspended Singh and deputy jailor Aftab Ansari for “suspected involvement” in the jailbreak.A few months later, Singh was made jailer in Gorakhpur jail but after five months on April 3, 2017, the then additional director-general (ADG) of jails Gopal Lal Meena had suspended Singh for gross irregularities. The raid team found jail security completely in shambles and prohibited items like cold drinks and cigarettes were being openly sold in the jail canteen. A great amount of favouritism was allegedly shown in the deployment of jail guards at sensitive locations. Singh was even said to have taken control of the grain godown, because of which a staff member had complained to higher-ups about the jailer. Singh was, later, attached to Lucknow headquarters.In Baghpat jail also things were not too good under him. The visiting ADG (jails) Chandra Prakash himself admitted to serious lapses in the security (including absence of CCTVs) that eventually led to the murder of Bajrangi.Speaking to TOI on this issue, Prakash said, “There are other jailers who have faced departmental inquiries in the past but our biggest problem is shortage of staff. We are working on 48% of the required capacity. We do not have the liberty to remove tainted officers and personnel and put them on a non-jail assignment. We are not like police department where a repeat offender can be removed from a police station and deputed somewhere else. In our case, the officer or other staff member has to be deployed in a jail only. In fact such is the shortage that we don’t have superintendents in many jails and have to deploy two deputy jailers each instead. The only thing we can do is to deploy the tainted ones in less important jails and that is what was done with Singh, but here also we have witnessed a major crime like this.”

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