PANAJI
In a major U-turn, the Prisons Department has revoked the suspension of the four jail officials within a week after they were suspended for grave security breach, which allowed explosive substances to be brought into the Colvale jail premises for burning of a Ravana effigy.
Assistant Jail Superintendent Chandrakant Harijan, Assistant Jailer Ramnath Gawde, and Jailers Mahesh Phadte and Anil Gaonkar were given suspension orders hours after videos on social media showed jail inmates burning the effigy as part of Dussehra celebrations.
Senior prison officers have confirmed the development, though a specific reason for this order’s reversal remains undisclosed.
Superintendent of the Central Jail Gouresh Kurtikar, who granted permission for the entry of explosive substances into the jail, had reportedly received only a memorandum after the permission letter went viral. Sources revealed that he provided an explanation in response to the memo, and the suspension revocation of the other four jail officials followed thereafter.
“Permission is hereby granted to allow in the Jail premises the … items for the use of the inmates of Central Jail Colvale in respect to the decoration and celebration of the upcoming Dussehra festival. In view of the same, you are kindly requested to direct your staff to allow the entry of the same in the Jail premises taking into consideration safety and security aspects…” the October 19 order by Kurtikar stated.
The list of items brought to the jail for the effigy and celebration included 3 kg of bending wire, 20 pieces of glue gun sticks, 10 pieces of big bamboo, six boxes of firecrackers, a box of rocket crackers, two scissors, 50 kgs of sweets, 20 packets of glitter, five pieces of big tape and 2 kg of thread.
