Inmates attack warder during raid at Kalaburagi prison

Rs 1.5 lakh cash, mobile phones, knives and ganja seized

A warder was injured after six undertrials attacked him when he conducted surprise checks at the Central Prison in Kalaburagi on Tuesday morning.

Acting on a tip-off that inmates were using smart phones, warder Vasant Sulfi and staff raided Barrack 1 around 10.30 am. Six undertrials Umesh, Tankya, Babu, Gangappa, Sagar and ‘Market’ Satish objected to the raid. Following a heated argument with yhe warder, they attacked Sulfi.

Tension prevailed for sometime after the six inmates along with others rushed towards the main gate. However, they were stopped by the prison officials who brought the situation under control. In-charge Superintendent of the prisons, Bhagawantraya Mali Patil, has lodged a case against the six inmates at the Farhatabad police station. One of the six inmates, Satish, has been shifted to Hindalga prison in Belagavi. The jail superintendent has sought permission from his superiors to shift the other five inmates, Inspector General of Police (Northeastern range) Alok Kumar told reporters.

Following a request by the prisons superintendent and after speaking to the ADGP (Prisons) N S Megharikh in Bengaluru, a huge team of policemen comprising 5 DySPs, 12 inspectors, 22 PSIs and 200 constables was rushed to the prison to support the jail staff in conducting the raids and also to instil fear among the inmates, he said.

A team led by Alok Kumar and Kalaburagi Additional SP Jayaprakash conducted raids at the central prison. Policemen unearthed Rs 1.2 lakh in cash, five mobile phones, memory cards, memory card readers, knives, scissors, ganja, chillums, tobacco products and pan masala sachets from the inmates during the simultaneous raid conducted at all the 19 barracks, including two women’s barracks. Alok Kumar said the inmates from whom these items were seized will be taken into custody and investigation conducted.

The prison has 839 inmates. However, there are only 92 prison staff to manage the prison. Besides, many notorious criminals are lodged in the jail and this is creating problems for the understaffed  prison, he added.