PATNA: At least 100 hardcore criminals lodged in two Bihar jails - Patna and Nalanda - will be shifted to Bhagalpur jail shortly to prevent them from continuing extortion rackets from inside the jails.
Officials of Patna's Beur Central Jail and Nalanda district jail are engaged in making a list of 100 criminals who face serious charges like murder, abduction for ransom, robbery and extortion, said sources in the police headquarters.
The decision was taken after notorious gangster and MLC Ritlal Yadav, who is lodged at Beur Central Jail, allegedly threatened the MD of a construction firm with dire consequences if he does not pay his gang 8% of a railway tender awarded to his firm. An FIR was lodged against Yadav at Khagaul police station on July 2 after a probe confirmed that the call to the MD was made from Beur jail by Yadav, said sources.
"After being shifted to Bhagalpur jail, these hardcore criminals would be lodged in isolated cells to stop their access to other criminals. On the priority list are criminals who have been booked in fresh cases despite being lodged in these two jails," said DIG (central range) Rajesh Kumar, to The New Indian Express, on Thursday.
Ritlal Yadav, who faces nearly 20 criminal cases, is close to Bihar's Opposition RJD. When he had filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate for Bihar Legislative Council polls in June 2015, he had said that he had the blessings of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. Ritlal won the poll for the Patna local authority constituency.
The DIG also said arrangements would be made to conduct the trial of these 100 criminals, after they are shifted to Bhagalpur's Shaheed Jubba Sahni Central Jail, through video-conferencing to minimise their chances of escape and their contact with their gang members. The jailed criminals would be shifted in the next ten days, he added.