The raid went on for three hours during which the second floor of ward number 9, the ground and first floor of ward number 7 and the ground floor of ward number 8 were searched. All these wards house around 400-500 undertrials. Senior officials themselves rummaged through baggage of the inmates and even frisked them.

“During the search, six cell phones were found and three of them had SIM cards,” said Sharma. One of the cell phones was found while frisking of an inmate, Zakir Sheikh, whoi is an accused in the infamous Basanti murder case. Later, at the ground floor of ward number 8, a DVD player was found wrapped in a blanket. A number of pornographic DVDs were also seized.

“The cell phone seized from Zakir was live and rang five times after we seized it. The phone was on a silent mode. We are verifying the incoming and outgoing calls. The cell phones were used by these criminals for running extortion rings from inside the jail,” said an officer of the detective department.

The officers also seized one knife and a pair of scissors from the wards. Some cell phone chargers and a small quantity of ganja were also found.