Illegal phone in Sabarmati Jail, inmates paid Rs 300 for a local 2 minutes call

AHMEDABAD: Inmates of Sabarmati Central Jail used to pay about Rs 300 for making a local phone call from a telephone booth illegally set up within the prison by Jayesh Thakker, an accused of the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy case.
The city police learnt about the illegal phone booth from Vishal Nayak, a convict of the Chetan Battery murder case who was taken into custody by the crime branch on Thursday.During interrogation, Nayak revealed that Thakker had been running an illegal 'PCO' within the jail premises and was charging Rs 300 for a local two-minute call. The charges would increase to Rs 500-600 for calls made to other states.
Crime branch officials said they are surprised how someone could run a PCO from the jail premises right under the nose of some 400 jail officials including IPS officers.
Sources in the police said that Nayak had also told cops about the nexus between some jail officials and inmates who wanted to indulge in illegal activities inside jail. He also revealed that smuggling a cel lphone in the jail premises was not a difficult task and a few bucks were sufficient to accomplish the task, the sources said.
Nayak has also disclosed that tobacco products to narcotics, everything is smuggled into the prison with the connivance of some jail staffers. He is believed to have told his interrogators how bribe money is distributed among cops. The sources said that crime branch officials intend to verify Nayak's allegations by interrogating other people.
"We will have to quiz a few jail officials to find out the truth," said an police officer. He added that the central jail require more CCTV cameras because those currently installed are not enough. Even the jammers have proved ineffective insofar as curbing phone frequencies in jail is concerned. Moreover, people living in the neighbourhood of the prison face problems because of the jammers, said sources.
Earlier, Nayak was booked by Ranip police for assaulting a jail official. Thereafter investigations were transferred to the crime branch which took him into custody on Thursday and began his interrogation.