Jind jail superintendent to face action in dance video case

Two days after a Karnal district jail official was suspended when a video purportedly showing him dance with a woman in Jind district prison surfaced, the home department today said strict action will taken against the Jind jail superintendent and his deputy.
Jind Deputy Commissioner and an IG-level officer, who conducted a probe into the video of last month's cultural event in the prison, have submitted their report in which the jail superintendent and his deputy have been "found guilty", Additional Chief Secretary of Home Department, Ram Niwas, said here.
"The state government has taken a serious view of the incident and strict disciplinary action will be taken against Jail Superintendent Atma Ram and Deputy Jail Superintendent Sewa Singh after examining the report," he said.

"According to the report, the incident occurred due to alleged negligence of these two officers and the cultural programme was organised in their knowledge," Niwas was quoted as saying in an official release.
The video, which has gone viral on social media, purportedly shows uniform clad Satwan Singh, head warden of Karnal district jail, dancing with a professional dancer on stage inside Jind jail premises. Another man on the stage can be seen throwing currency notes on the woman dancer.
"Violation of the jail manual has definitely occurred as calling outsiders (woman dancer and others) for such programmes in jail premises and involvement of officers in such events is not within the bounds of propriety," Niwas said.

Information regarding the incident was received through social media, he said, adding the media too played an active role in highlighting the incident.

"High-level officers had no knowledge of that incident," Niwas said.
The Haryana Inspector General of Police (Prisons) has suspended Satwan Singh with effect from April 1 for his involvement in the incident, an official release had said.
On the status of arms licences in the state, Niwas said 1,40,617 persons had arms licences, of which 1,37,877 had taken Unique Identification Number (UID).
Show-cause notices would be issued to the remaining 2,740 persons who had not approached for getting UID number by March 31, he said, adding investigation would be conducted into it as such licences are being considered illegal.