The Chhattisgarh Police have recovered a mobile phone from the possession of Narayan Sanyal, the highest-ranking Maoist ideologue lodged in Bilaspur Central Prison.

Police sources said that the Naxal leader swallowed the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card of the mobile in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Inspector-General of Police (Bilaspur Range) Rajeev Shrivastava said that the mobile was recovered from Sanyal’s possession after a surprise check by the prison authorities, following a tip off.

“As the raid began, Sanyal took out the SIM and swallowed it and hid the handset in his undergarments,” the IG said. Sanyal was immediately rushed to a hospital for medical examination.

“It is a matter of grave concern that a cellphone was accessible to a such a high-profile inmate,” Srivastava said. The police have begun tracing the call details on the cellphone and are locating the persons with whom Sanyal was in touch. Sanyal was shifted to Bilaspur Central Prison from Raipur earlier this year, after the arrest of Peoples Union For Civil Liberties national vice-president Dr Binayak Sen, on charges of helping Naxalites and frequently meeting Sanyal in the prison. Sanyal, the 70-year-old ailing Naxal leader, has been in judicial custody since his arrest from Raipur in December 2005. He is facing dozens of cases, including masterminding the October 2003 attack on former Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu and the jailbreak in Bihar’s Jehanabad district in November 2005.