Cellular firms may install phone jammers in Karnataka jails

The government, on Tuesday, decided to install mobile phone jammers in jails across the state.

The irregularities in jails prompted the government to install jammers, which would effectively disable cellular phones by intercepting and snapping signals from base towers.

The government had taken notice of criminals using mobile phones to plot heinous crimes from the jail premises.

The project to install jammers across the prisons in the state would commence from the central jail in Parappana Agrahara. The minister for prisons, Umesh Katti said mobile phone service providers would be contracted to install jammers in the prisons, and the government would take action against them if they failed to jam the signals.

Katti added that the pre-mature release of 590 well-behaved prisoners would take more time since the governor, HR Bhardwaj, was desirous of examining each case separately. The prisoners would be released in batches of 20 to  30 in the coming days, the minister said.

The prisons minister sought to downplay the controversy surrounding health minister B Sriramulu’s visit to the central prison. Denying allegations of Sriramulu meeting criminals, Katti said the visit of his colleague’s was confined to reviewing the medical facilities for prisoners.