Officials attached to Vellore Cesntral Prison seized 10 mobile phones from inmates at the facility during surprise checks on Monday and Tuesday. While five phones were confiscated from the new block on Tuesday, officials seized five phones, two SIM cards, four batteries and a charger from four remand prisoners at the Old A-class block on the previous night.
Officials lodged a complaint with Bagayam Police against the four prisoners- Manimaran, Nagendran, Vimal Kumar and Rajesh Kanna- from whom the devices were seized on Monday. The gadgets were handed over to police. A case has been registered under section 42 of the Prisons Act and an inquiry has been initiated.
Prison superintendent R Arivudainambe said,“We plan to install coin telephone booths inside the prison to help prisoners keep in touch with their families. Before installing the booths, we wanted to seize the mobile phones possessed by prisoners,” he added.