Gujarat police conduct raids at 17 jails to check illegal activities

Raids are being conducted in 17 jails in Gujarat to check whether illegal activities are taking place there and also to ensure that inmates are getting the facilities they are entitled to under the law, police said.

As many as 1,700 policemen, including officers, are involved in the operation, which began on Friday evening, Director General of Police (DGP) Vikas Sahay said.

Raids are being conducted in central jails in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and other cities and also in jails, he told reporters on Friday evening when the operation was underway. “The purpose of raids is to detect and prevent illegal activities in prisons. Sniffer dogs were also roped in for this intensive search operation,” said Sahay.

Another purpose of the operation is to see if the facilities are being provided to the inmates correctly as per the rules, he said.Police personnel involved in the operation wore body cameras and the entire process was telecast live at the state police command center in Gandhinagar, where Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi, DGP Sahay and other senior officers were present.

"During the operation, police spoke to inmates and prison officials," Sahay said. Hours after the raids, some smartphones were recovered from prison barracks, he said, adding that more information about the raids would be shared later in the day after the operation was over.

"The policemen wore body cameras to ensure transparency and Minister Sanghavi saw the live feed of the raids at the state control room in Gandhinagar," Sahay said. Ahmedabad's Sabarmati Jail, one of the facilities raided, is home to alleged Uttar Pradesh gangster Atiq Ahmed and many convicts in the Ahmedabad serial blasts.