Panaji: After the high court directed the removal of, and an inquiry into, mobile charging points in central jail, the prisons department told the high court that a comprehensive security audit was being carried out.To prevent the recurrence of illicit mobile usage î –and allied security breaches, steps were already initiated and a timeline was fixed î –for implementing measures in the immediate, short, î –medium and long-term, the prisons dept submitted to the high court in an interim report.The high court last month slammed the authorities for permitting inmates of the jail to slip in mobile phones and expressed shock at charging points at several places in the jail. It directed authorities to install robust phone jammers and CCTV cameras at the inspection counter, and to conduct personal searches of jail inmates entering jail premises under CCTV surveillance.The high court also directed an inquiry into how the charging points came to exist inside the jail premises, and to fix accountability.The high court passed the directions after a complainant told the Goa Children’s Court that the murder accused telephoned the complainant from Colvale Jail, causing mental disturbance.A show-cause notice was issued to the accused and privileges were curtailed as a preventive and disciplinary measure, the DySP stated.The high court then î –stated that this was not î –enough, and that swift, comprehensive remedial and stringent measures were required to be taken by prison authorities to ensure such untoward incidents did not occur in the future.
