West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday suspended the superintendent and chief controller of Kolkata’s Presidency Correctional Home after police searched the premises and recovered 23 mobile phones and over 30 SIM cards allegedly used illegally by inmates.
According to the rules, inmates can only speak to family members using a landline phone kept at all correctional facilities.
Ordering an investigation against them, Adhikari said, “We have suspended superintendent M Kujur and chief controller Dipta Gharai after a joint operation by the Kolkata and state police inside the Presidency correctional home led to the recovery of a large number of mobile phones of various types and SIM cards. The new government is cracking down on these.”
Adhikari warned all jail officials involved in such activities to stop immediately. “If any mobile phone is found, action will be taken against not only those who made calls but also those who received the calls,” Adhikari said.
“The inmates at Presidency include people such as Sheikh Shahjahan. The operation could be linked to the last government,” Adhikari added, without naming the All India Trinamool Congress, which lost the recent two-phase elections.
TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan, an undertrial prisoner, was arrested after residents of North 24 Parganas district’s Sandeshkhali launched a movement against him and his associates in 2024, accusing them of extortion and multiple rapes.
The British built the jail in 1864. Prominent leaders such as Subhas Chandra Bose, Sri Aurobindo and Jawaharlal Nehru were lodged at Presidency Jail during the freedom movement..
