Fence eating crop? Prison staffer tries to supply drugs to jailbirds

In a case of fence eating the crop, a prison department employee has been arrested for attempting to supply illicit drugs to jail inmates.

Gangadhara Gurusiddappa Hubballi, a first-division assistant posted in the administration section that deals with convicts at the Central Prison, was caught trying to smuggle in LSD strips and Hashish oil on Wednesday, officials said. The substances together weighed about 50 grams.

Security guards manning the prison’s main gate frisked Hubballi as part of the standard operating procedure when he reported for work. One of the pockets in his trousers produced the contraband. The guards informed their higher-ups, and Hubballi was detained. The Parappana Agrahara police subsequently arrested him under the stringent Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Police said Hubballi had been working in the prison since 2019 and had developed “close contacts” with convicted prisoners.

While prison officials insisted that guards deployed at the main guard frisk “each and every person” entering the jail premises, a senior police officer suspected that Hubballi had been let in “unchecked” all these days. An investigation is underway to find out if that was the case.

A three-year-old video shot by an imprisoned gangster had recently gone viral. The video purportedly shows prison staff supplying ganja, cigarettes and other prohibited items to the inmates. Prison authorities have ordered an investigation into the video.

“There’s no smoke without the fire,” the police officer said, citing the FDA’s arrest.