By IANS,
Patna : Thirty-seven mobile phones were seized from the inmates of Bihar’s Siwan jail during a raid early Sunday morning, the police said.
A dozen mobile chargers, 15 telephone diaries, a headphone, a knife, seven bottles of imported perfume and some cash were also seized from the prisoners.
Acting on a specific information that inmates were making calls through mobile phones from the jail, officials conducted the raid and seized the mobile phone sets, phone chargers and other items.
Siwan district Superintendent of Police (SP) Umesh Kumar told IANS over telephone that the seizure of 37 mobile phones and other items has stunned him. ”It was a big catch from prisoners inside the jail,” he said.
The raid was led by the district magistrate, SP and other officials of the district administration.
Dozens of hardcore criminals, including Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammad Shahabuddin who is involved in over 40 criminal cases, are lodged in Siwan jail, about 150 km from here.
Kumar said that nothing was seized from Shahabuddin’s cell.
A Lok Sabha member from Siwan since 1996, Shahabuddin is involved in over 40 criminal cases, including those of murder, abduction and possession of illegal arms. He was convicted in four cases till date. The RJD leader was convicted for the first time in March 2007, for his role in an attack on the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) office in Siwan in 1998.