Cellphones found on inmates, 8 Tihar officials suspended

Eight Tihar jail officials, including three assistant superintendents, were today suspended after three mobile phones were recovered from inmates during a surprise check.
The suspended personnel have been identified as three assistant superintendents -- Deepak Sharma, Manmohan, Rohit Mann -- head warder Virender and warders Devender, Anil, Uttam and Rajesh.
Officials said that there have been reports in the recent past of inmates using mobile phones inside the prison premises following which DG (Prisons) Alok Kumar had around a month back formed some special teams to carry out surprise checks.
"During one such surprise check yesterday in jail numbers 8 and 9, three mobile phones along with some other objectionable material were recovered. Following that, eight personnel who were responsible for checking such things have been suspended," said Tihar spokesperson, DIG Mukesh Prasad.

It is pertinent to mention that there are dedicated teams in Tihar whose job it is to check for objectionable material like mobile phones twice a day, but the recoveries were not made by them but a special team which was on a surprise check.
There have been recent instances Delhi Police busting extortion rackets which were being run from Tihar.
On Thursday, Shaukat Pasha, who is serving a life sentence in a murder case and lodged in Tihar was arrested by the Crime Branch for allegedly giving instructions to his henchmen to eliminate a Delhi-based businessman at the behest of suspended IAS officer Sanjeev Kumar who, too, was arrested.