NE NEWS SERVICE
AMRELI, AUG 25
Police on Tuesday arrested five inmates of the Amreli district jail in Gujarat for allegedly running an illegal ”PCO” phone booth inside the prison to earn money, said officials.
The arrests were made following a detailed probe during which the police also stumbled upon an illegal episode involving a Rajkot-based doctor who allegedly use to issue bogus health certificates to help inmates secure bail, they said.
Apart from the five inmates, all undertrials arrested for serious crimes like murder and extortion, the Amreli police also arrested the doctor, Dhiren Gheewala, said the officials.
The five inmates were identified by the police as Naresh Vala, Shivraj Vinchhia, Balsingh Boricha, Narendra Khuman, and Gautam Khuman.
The matter came to light on July 7 when an inspection squad from Ahmedabad found an abandoned dual-SIM mobile phone from outside the district jail here, said a release by the Amreli police.
After the recovery of the phone, police launched a probe and eventually unearthed the racket wherein some prisoners had turned the VIP barrack of the jail into a Public Call Office (PCO), the release said.
These accused inmates somehow managed to bring mobile phones and SIM cards inside the jail and started charging money from co-prisoners for using the ”service”, it said.
The probe revealed that some of the prisoners even called inmates lodged in the Surat district jail using the ”PCO” set up in the VIP barrack, said the release.
It was revealed that as many as 17 mobile numbers and 40 IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) numbers were used in the entire racket, said the release.
Half-a-dozen more people, including prisoners and outsiders who were part of the racket, were yet to be nabbed, it said.
During the PCO probe, police unearthed the episode involving the Rajkot-based doctor, the release said.
It was alleged that Dr Gheewala used to issue bogus medical certificates to inmates for securing bail on health grounds.
While the doctor has been nabbed, his middleman, a jail inmate named Kanti Vala, is yet to be nabbed. He recently jumped parole and went untraceable, said the release.
