Berhampur: Police seized a huge quantity of cash, intoxicants and weapons from the inmates of Berhampur circle jail during a surprise raid Monday morning.
Ganjam superintendent of police Ashis Singh said a joint team of the police and the district administration seized six mobile phones, three sim cards, 17 ganja pouches, 80 cigarette packets, 1,200 gutkha pouches, Rs 83,430 in cash, one gupti (a sharp-edged weapon), two knives, 17 lighters, 100 matchboxes, 200 packets of bidi and four fans from different cells in the jail.
Singh said a majority of the items were seized from the cell of former Congress MLA of Sanakhemundi Ramesh Chandra Jena.
The SP said six mobile phones, three SIM cards, four fans including two pedestrian, Rs 66, 260 in cash, two knives, 80 cigarette packets and 17 pouches ganja were seized from Jena’s cell alone.
The raid led by IG of police southern range, Berhampur, Amitav Thakur started at 6 AM and continued till 9 AM.
Ganjam collector Prem Chandra Chowdhary, sub-collector of Berhampur Laxmikant Sethi, tehsildar of Berhampur Rashmi Ranjan Nayak and many senior police officers and three platoons of police force took part in the raid.
“We had information of the inmates possessing banned substances and in a bid to put an end to the illegal activities in this jail the surprise raid was conducted Monday, the IG said, adding action will be initiated against those involved in the illegal activities after a through inquiry.
The sub-collector said, “We are investigating into the loopholes in the security system and how such huge banned substances entered into the premises where high security prevailed.”
He further said, phone calls were made from the jail to some private persons for extortion of money and asserted that such raids would continue in the future also. Agencies