Sabarmati jailbreak bid: Probe blames jail staff for ‘negligence’

Days after a tunnel was discovered inside the Sabarmati Central Jail, a departmental inquiry by the prisons department has blamed the "negligence" of the jail staff that could have led to the attempted jailbreak by undertrials in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case.

The 20-page inquiry report, submitted by Additional DGP (jails) P C Thakur to principal secretary (home) S K Nanda on Friday, indicts the jail staff for "not visiting the barracks frequently" but names no one. The report rules out any mala fide intention on part of the prison guards in not reporting the tunnel, neatly dug near the toilets in barrack 4 of the "Chhota Chakkar" of Gujarat's biggest jail.

Meanwhile, the 14 alleged undertrials accused of plotting an escape have been moved to a brand new high-security barrack that also has camera surveillance. This barrack was readied overnight after the tunnel was discovered.

So far, a jailor, D K Parmar, and senior jailor Dinesh Vankar have been suspended in the case for negligence.

Police find two mobile handsets in jail during search

A city crime branch team probing the attempted jailbreak case conducted searches in Sabarmati Central Jail Friday and found two mobile handsets.

Joint commissioner of police (crime) A K Sharma said, "Two handsets were found in the Bada Chakkar area, wrapped in polythene and buried near a tree. They seemed to be old and had no SIM cards. But we will investigate the IMEI of the phones to trace the owners."

One of these is a Samsung set while another is Chinese, he said.

A fresh case was registered at the Ranip police station, where case relating to jailbreak bid is already registered.

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