Week after Munna Bajrangi’s murder: Deoria jail raided, knives recovered in Atiq Ahmed’s barrack

“The search was conducted by me and the SP, along with 300 policemen, at around 7 am today. It went on for three hours. We recovered two SIM cards, four pen drives and two small knives from the barrack of Atiq Ahmad. A mobile phone and four SIM cards were recovered from another barrack. All these items have been seized and the jail superintendent has been asked to get an FIR lodged into the matter. There are 16 barracks in the jail, with around 100 inmates in each barrack,” Kumar told The Indian Express.

He further said, “The step was taken today as we have been receiving complaints of such activities going on inside the jail. Also, some high profile criminals including Atiq Ahmad, former SP zilla panchayat chairman, Ram Pravesh Yadav, and historysheeter K D Singh are lodged in Deoria jail, making it a sensitive prison. To make things worse, we have around 1,600 inmates in a jail which has a capacity of only around 580 inmates. This is because there is no jail in adjacent Kushinagar district and all the accused from that district too are lodged at Deoria jail.”

“Keeping all this in mind, we have sent a recommendation to the authorities concerned to transfer some of the inmates to other jails. A report about Thursday’s search has been sent to the Inspector General (Prisons),” said the DM.