Parappana Agrahara Central Jail has a total of 19 jammers

Eleven out of the 19 mobile phone jammers installed at the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail in Bengaluru remain defunct as a result of a technical snag.

The large prison complex, has over the years gained lot of attention, thanks to its high-profile inmates both from the State and the rest of the country.

Following incidents of mobile phone usage, mainly by gangsters who operate from behind bars, the State prison authorities installed 19 jammer devices a few years ago.

Concerns raised

The fact that 11 jammers do not work has raised concerns over gangsters operating from the inside. “The snag has been there for a while and we have taken the matter to higher authorities. We expect it to be fixed soon,” said a prison official from the jail complex.

The problem was highlighted on the night of February 6. During a surprise raid at the high security barrack number two, a handset without a SIM card was found. The block also houses a few terror suspects including undertrials from Pakistan.

“We are looking into how the cellphone was brought into the prison complex,” added the officer. Electronics Corporation of India Limited, a central government body, had installed and maintains the jammers, and the State prison authorities will have to inform ECIL on the faulty jammers, which will then send a team of experts to fix the problem.

A senior officer with the Karnataka Prisons Department told The Hindu that the matter of faulty jammers has been taken up as a priority.

District Prison, Mangaluru: 5 devices installed recently

Central Prison, Belagavi: 7

Central Prison, Ballari: 7

Central Prison, Kalaburagi: work underway to install them

Three more central prisons in Karnataka are slated to get them

(from thehindu.com)