the goan I network
PANAJI
In three separate incidents, 6 staff of Goa’s central jail -- Colvale Jail -- were suspended with immediate effect on Thursday and Friday, confirmed the Inspector General of Prisons, Rajendra Mirajkar. Those suspended include the assistant superintendent Chandrakant P Harijan, jailor Mahesh P Fadte, and four jail guards - Narayan Naik, Prakash Gawas, Rama Korgaonkar, and Mahabaleshwar Parulekar. While Harijan and Fadte were suspended on Thursday, the four jail guards were suspended on Friday.
The first incident, which led to the suspension of Harijan and Fadte involved letting Kaushal Puri, who was in prison for dealing drugs, out on parole without properly cross checking his documents. Puri, who was arrested in 2015 when found with 1,216 kilograms of charas in a restaurant in Harmal, was let out on parole, roughly on September 16. He was supposed to report back to prison on October 16, but he jumped parole. It was then that the Inspector General of Prisons, Mirajkar, went to cross check his documents and discovered that they were fake, leading to the suspension of both the staff involved in letting out Puri on parole. Puri is originally from Nepal.
In the second instance, three jail guards, Naik, Gawas and Korgaonkar were caught red-handed supplying tobacco products to prisoners. This had been going on for some time, it was discovered. Despite a warning from the inspector general, the three did not conform, and were duly suspended.
In the third case, jail guard Parulekar was caught entering the prison with ganja and charas in his shoes. As he was entering the prison in the afternoon, the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) police stopped him and searched him on the suspicion that he was carrying drugs. The police will take further action in the two drug-related incidents.
The suspension orders state that as long as they are suspended, they will be at their respective headquarters ie the office of the Mamlatdar Bardez/Sattari/Pernem, and shall not leave the headquarters without the prior permission of the Mamlatdar Bardez/Sattari/Pernem. However, they shall be entitled for subsistence.
