Bhopal: After union home ministry rejected the state government’s plea to provide Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel for Bhopal central jail, the Madhya Pradesh government has sanctioned merely 10 additional posts for jail’s security. On insistence of jail department, the government had requested centre to depute 100 CISF men for tightening up jail’s security.
At present, Bhopal central jail houses 50 hard core terrorists who belong to ISIS module, ISI espionage, SIMI, naxals among others. Though Bhopal central jail has stepped up security arrangements, they are inadequate. About 50 security personnel guard the special wards where hard core terrorists’ barracks are situated.
The 10 additional posts sanctioned by state government include one jailer, two assistant jailers, one head constable or head warder and six constables or warders.
“If the centre rejected our demand, state government should have sanctioned atleast 100 posts for safeguarding Bhopal central jail. State government has made a mockery of security,” a jail department official said wishing anonymity.
The demand for security personnel was made after SIMI incident. On the intervening night of October 30-31, 2016, eight SIMI members facing trial in various terror cases had escaped from one of the two high-security blocks after killing jail warder Ramashankar Yadav.
On November 1 morning, all the jail-breakers were gunned down by state police in an alleged encounter on outskirts of Bhopal. After the jailbreak, the jail department got a special security audit of Bhopal central jail done by CISF. In January 2017, the jail department had sent the proposal to the central government. It said it would prefer deployment of Indo Tibetan Border Police, which is an important part of security cover at Delhi’s Tihar jail. The union home ministry dropped this proposal after which state government sent a fresh proposal suggesting that CISF men be deployed.
