Four jail staffers face transfer after Uttar Pradesh's Unnao jail video goes viral
LUCKNOW: A day after the video of jail inmates seen brandishing a firearm on Unnao jail premises went viral on social media, the axe has fallen on four jail officials who were transferred to different jails across the state late on Thursday night.
According to Director General, prisons, Anand Kumar, head warder Mata Prasad whose involvement was alleged in the incident was sent to Maharajganj Jail while Hemraj was transferred to Varanasi Central Jail. As per the sources, Mata Prasad and Hemraj plotted the scene wherein inmates were shot holding firearms on premises to malign some senior officials.
Jail minister Jai Kumar Singh Jaiki confirmed action against four persons saying a thorough probe into the incident was on.
Meanwhile, state government spokesman and health minister Siddharth Nath Singh claimed that in days to come no such incident will exist as nobody was allowed to take law in their hands in Yogi Raj.
Moreover, jail warders Salim Khan and Avdhesh Sahu were shifted to Basti district jail and Varanasi Gyanpur jail respectively. What is more, the authorities have recommended changing the jail of the two accused -- Gaurav Pratap Singh alias Ankur and Amrish Rawat -- seen in the video.
While Gaurav Pratap Singh alias Ankur of Rae Bareli and Amrish Rawat of Meerut are murder convicts serving life sentence. They are lodged in barrack no 17 of Unnao district jail but after the incident may be shifted to Lucknow jail.
Rawat was shifted from Meerut to Unnao jail for administrative reasons and that he had around nine cases against him. Ankur is serving the term in cases loot and murder against him in Rae Bareli and Lucknow. He was shifted from Lucknow jail to Unnao six months back.
In the video, two prisoners are seen holding a firearm, which the prison authorities later claimed was a model made using clay and other easily available items in the prison. They said Ankur was a painter and he had made the toy firearm with clay and coloured it with black paint to pose with it.
Meanwhile, reacting to the video, the Samajwadi Party dubbed the incident an “open challenge” to CM Yogi Adityanath. The party claimed that jails were the fiefdom of criminals.