New Delhi: In an effort to stop the gangster-terrorist nexus, intelligence agencies are exploring the idea of surprise checking in jail along with the joint team of special cells and crime branches.
Sources privy to the development told ETV Bharat that the agencies have mooted the idea to start such surprise checking from Delhi's Tihar jail as several top gangsters from Tihar jail are found to be involved in several incidents in the recent past. "Such surprise checking will be conducted on monthly basis and it will be carried by joint teams of special cell and crime branches," sources said. Similar search operations will also be carried out in jails in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and other states.
The agencies are also exploring the provision of enhanced punishment for inmates found using phones. "Installing real-time spectrum analyzers has also been explored besides upgrading mobile signal jammers in the jail campus," sources said. Intelligence agencies believe that taking strong action against jail inmates is very much necessary following an increasing number of instances of gangsters and terrorist nexus.
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Corroborating such development, a senior National Investigation Agency (NIA) told this correspondent that the agency has started exploring such an idea a few months back. The gangsters-terrorist nexus came to the fore following the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala. To date, NIA conducted five rounds of search operations as part of the agency's crackdown on top gangsters and their weapon suppliers based in Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh.
"We have launched the multi-state crackdown against organized criminal syndicates and networks after they were found getting linked with terror outfits and networks," the NIA official said. The NIA has earlier said that gangsters keep operating their business from inside the jails. "Their (gangsters) business ranges from arms dealing and drugs racket where they keep operating from inside the jail," the official said.
It is worth mentioning that the Home Ministry on January 9 dashed a letter to Stage DGPs and the principal secretary (Home) to lodge jail inmates who are in custody for offenses related to narcotics and smuggling of drugs separately. The ministry suggested that such inmates should not be allowed to mix with other inmates.
