But prison officials say he used a landline, and not a mobile phone
Hyderabad : Telangana prison officials on Saturday denied reports that jailed IM operative Yasin Bhatkal had called his wife using a mobile phone from Cherlapalli jail. “The allegation that Yasin Bhatkal called his wife with a mobile phone from inside the Cherlapalli Prison is baseless, factless and there is no truth… it is a false allegation,” Telangana Prisons DIG A Narasimha told reporters here.
The question of bringing in a cell phone inside the prison does not arise as thorough checks are conducted before anyone enters the premises, Narasimha claimed.
Bhatkal, who is one of the accused in the February 2013 Dilsukhnagar twin blasts case that rocked the city, is lodged in the Cherlapalli Central Prison here.
According to reports, Bhatkal called up his wife using a cell phone from inside the jail and told her that he would get out of the jail soon with help from “friends from Damascus”.
Following court orders, Bhatkal was granted telephone facilities from February this year, wherein prisoners are allowed to speak to their family members twice a week, the DIG Prisons said. “Since Bhatkal availed the landline telephone facility, he spoke on two numbers to his mother and wife on 27 occasions. The phone facility is only for five minutes and it automatically gets disconnected after completion of the specified time,” Narasimha said.
The entire conversations have been recorded and the same have been handed over to the investigating and security agencies. “The 27 conversations, which are in Urdu and Arabic, have been handed over to investigating agencies,” he said, adding, however, Bhatkal may have spoken during transit (while attending court proceedings in the case) and “that needs to be ascertained”.
Security around the Cherlapalli prison will be enhanced with deployment of additional forces, the DIG said, adding they carried out surprise checks on the jail premises on Saturday, but no cell phone was found.
“In the last one month, Bhatkal spoke to his family members seven times through the authorised landline phone facility. He did not speak from a cell phone from inside the jail… It is just not possible,” Telangana Director General (Prisons) V K Singh told PTI. “We deny any such conversation from a mobile phone… If he really has such a plan, why would he share it with his family members,” the DG (Prisons) said, adding, “I don’t know… there may be such a plan and investigating agencies will look into that.”
