West Bengal: Phone seized from Pawan Ruia inside prison

Officials of the Barrackpore police commissionerate have seized a mobile phone from the possession of Ruia Group chairman Pawan Kumar Ruia inside the Dum Dum Correctional Home where he has been kept since December last year when he was arrested.

Sources said that acting on a tip off, the officials carried out a raid at the Correctional Home and seized a mobile phone from Ruia’s possession. “The phone has been seized and we have lodged a formal complaint against him at the Dum Dum Police Station,” said Subrata Mitra, CP, Barrackpore Police Commissionerate.

Police sources said that they would seek permission of the magistrate before an investigation into how the mobile phone was smuggled inside the prison, was initiated. “We will also investigate since when he has been using it and who was he in touch with from within the prison,” a senior official of Barrackpore Commissionerate said.

Police are also looking into the possible involvement of a jail official in the whole issue because it is practically impossible to get a mobile phone inside without help. “If anyone is found guilty, strict action will be taken against the offender,” the official said.

On December 10, 2016, Pawan Kumar Ruia was arrested by CID officials from his New Delhi residence following a complaint in November last year that equipment of Railways worth around Rs 50 crore had gone missing from wagonmaker Jessop and Company Ltd’s Dum Dum unit and that Ruia was responsible for two fires inside Jessop. The Ruia Group had purchased stakes of this former PSU.