"Inmates Accused Of Serious Offences Calling Victims From Jails," High Court Asks Punjab ADGP To Beef Up Security At Prisons

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today orally asked the Punjab Prison authority to come up with the shortest possible timeline for installation of security equipments in prisons, to prevent unauthorised use of mobile phones by inmates.

In the suo moto case registered over Punjab Prisons security issue and illegal use of mobile phones by prisoners, the Additional Director General of Police (Punjab Prisons) submitted an affidavit stating the timelines required for installation of jail security equipments like jammers and body scanners. State has sought 6 months time for installing body scanners.

Expressing dissatisfaction with the proposal, a division bench of Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and Justice Kirti Singh pointed that incidents of inmates using phones and creating videos in jails are occurring almost daily. "This situation is an embarrassment for the ADGP and has a negative impact on the law and order situation in the State," added the Court.

Court said body scanners are the "most important" equipment for prison security and suggested the State to come with fresh proposal and reduce the timeline to the shortest.

“There is a grave urgency", "the inmates accused of serious offences are calling the victims from jail,” said the Court while referring to one of the incidents which was brought to the notice of the Court in which a rape accused had video called the victim from Sangrur Jail, Punjab.

At this juncture, the State counsel informed the Court that for installation of body scanners, permission of Union government is required. Centre's counsel then assured the Court that permission for the same will be granted without any delay.

Amicus Curiae Tanu Bedi suggested that till the time there is implementation of equipments, physical frisking of inmates should be increased to check the use of mobile phones from prison. The Court has asked the ADGP to ensure strict security till the time the equipments are installed.

During the proceeding, the bench also noted the incident of the Nabha jailbreak, in which a certain prisoner accused of heinous crimes managed to flee. “The highest security jail has the least security...the ADGP also has to see this aspect,” said Justice Grewal. The ADGP orally submitted that by the end of this year there will be certain constructions in the Nabha Jail to beef up the security.

Assistant IGP of the Intelligence Bureau apprised the bench that in compliance of its previous direction, "all 105 URL links" of Lawrence Bishnoi's interview containing objectionable content have been blocked from the concerned platform and two FIRs have been registered and the matter is being investigated by the Special Investigation Team.

The matter is now listed for January 25, for further consideration.

Tanu Bedi, Advocate as Amicus Curiae.

Satyapal Jain, Additional Solicitor General of India with Arun Gosain, Senior Govt. Counsel and Swati Arora, Advocate for the respondent/UOI.

Ishma Randhawa, Addl. A.G., Punjab.

Anant Kataria, DAG, Haryana.

Munish Bansal, Public Prosecutor and

Rajiv Vij, Additional Public Prosecutor for UT, Chandigarh.

Gourave Bhayyia Gilhotra, Advocate and Hitesh Verma, Advocate for the applicant in CM-85-CWPIL-2023.

Title: Court on its own motion v. State of Punjab