The alleged contract killer, identified by Crime Branch of Delhi Police as Shaukat Pasha, has been accused of hiring five henchmen and coordinating with them from within the prison to kill Tika Hassan Mustafa, the friend of convicted IAS officer Sanjeev Kumar.
The rise in number of phones being smuggled into various prisons in Delhi has became a talking point within the security establishments yet again, after a Haryana cadre IAS officer was arrested for allegedly conspiring to murder his friend, using a contract killer currently incarcerated in Delhi's Tihar Jail.
The alleged contract killer, identified by Crime Branch of Delhi Police as Shaukat Pasha, has been accused of hiring five henchmen and coordinating with them from within the prison to kill Tika Hassan Mustafa, the friend of convicted IAS officer Sanjeev Kumar.
DCP Crime (North) Dinesh Kumar Gupta, who led the arrest of the IAS officer, told dna that Kumar had attempted to kill Mustafa at least four times in the last couple of months but failed due to lack of proper coordination between the hired henchmen and Pasha. While Mustafa was lucky to survive, criminal syndicates operating from various jails is becoming a threatening situation for both the prison authorities as well as the security establishments operating outside the jail.
In fact a total of 48 smuggled phones have been confiscated in Tihar Jail alone in the last two months.
"This is not the first case where in a phone was used inside a jail to coordinate a murder attempt. We might be writing to the prison authorities very soon," another senior police officer of the Crime Branch said. In fact upon the arrest of Delhi's most dreaded gangster Neeraj Bawana last month, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S N Shrivastava had told dna that his department will have to continue to keep a check if Bawana operates from the prison.
Last month, two other gangsters Naveen Bali and Amit Shukla were found to be using mobile phones inside the jail.
Tihar spokesperson and DIG (Prisons) Mukesh Prasad while speaking to dna elaborated on the challenges his department has to meet to stop the smuggling. "Whenever under trials are taken to court or other convicts are taken to hospitals, they have their people on the outside to hand them a phone. At other times food rations are brought in large packages, in which phones can be easily concealed," Prasad.
While the DIG believes that a full body scanner in Tihar can save the authorities a lot of trouble he mentioned how lack of patrolling vehicles outside the jail is contributing the rising number of mobile phones inside the prison.
"The main jails which include number 1, 8 and 9, share the boundary wall with the main road. People from outside can easily throw mobile phones into the jail and have been doing so. Phones are stuffed into tennis balls and thrown inside. We have confiscated 48 phones between March and April alone," said Prasad.
The officer also said most of the phones confiscated are of Chinese make which are cheap, strong, small and can bear the impact of a fall.
48 phones confiscated in Tihar jail
In fact a total of 48 smuggled phones have been confiscated in Tihar Jail alone in the last two months. While according to the prison authorities, they are doing everything there is to do to stop criminal syndicates operating from the prisons, the Delhi police feels that not enough is being done to monitor smuggling of phones into the jails.
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