Mobile phone use by prisoners now a criminal offence in Chandigarh

| | Chandigarh
  • 0

Mobile phone use by prisoners now a criminal offence in Chandigarh

Tuesday, 28 January 2020 | Nishu Mahajan | Chandigarh

Any prisoner found guilty of possessing a mobile phone in Model Jail, Burail here will now be punished with a maximum punishment of three years imprisonment.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a gazette notification dated January 24, under Section 87 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, extending the Prisons (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2011 to the union territory of Chandigarh. With this, the usage of mobile phone or its accessories by prisoners in Burail jail have been made a criminal offence.

According to the Act, if any prisoner is found guilty of possessing, operating or using a mobile phone or their component parts like SIM card, memory card, battery of charger or if the prisoner or any other person assists or abets or instigates in the supply thereof, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term, not exceeding one year or with fine, not exceeding Rs  25,000 or with both.

If the mobile phone is used for committing an offence inside or outside the jail’s premises by a prisoner, the imprisonment shall not be less than one year, which may extend to three years or with fine, not exceeding Rs  40,000 or with both, the Act stated.Under the Act, in case of non-payment of fine, the imprisonment may be further extended upto one year. The offence shall be cognizable and shall be triable by the court of the magistrate first class.

Notably, the Burail authorities have been facing serious issues over the supply of prohibited items, including mobile phones in the jail premises. In the recent past, prohibited items have been seized from prisoners inside the jail or they were also caught trying to sneak these inside the jail premises while returning from court hearings.In 2018, three mobile phones and SIM cards were recovered from a barrack of a notorious criminal in Burail.The Burail jail houses around 1100 inmates including 450 convicts, of which nine are women.

Commenting upon the law, Hemant Kumar, an advocate at Punjab and Haryana High Court here said that the President had accorded his assent to the Punjab Amendment in Prisons Act, 1894 in August 2014 but it was notified for enforcement over two years later in September 2016 after it got published in the Punjab Government gazette. Now it has been made applicable in the union territory of Chandigarh, he said.

Sunday Edition

CAA PASSPORT TO FREEDOM

24 March 2024 | Kumar Chellappan | Agenda

CHENNAI EXPRESS IN GURUGRAM

24 March 2024 | Pawan Soni | Agenda

The Way of Bengal

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

The Pizza Philosopher

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

Astroturf | Lord Shiva calls for all-inclusiveness

24 March 2024 | Bharat Bhushan Padmadeo | Agenda

Interconnected narrative l Forest conservation l Agriculture l Food security

24 March 2024 | BKP Sinha/ Arvind K jha | Agenda