Kolkata, May 15 (IANS) In a major crackdown against the long-standing menace of the use of mobile phones within different correctional homes, the West Bengal government on Friday announced the suspension of the Superintendent and Chief Controller of the Presidency Central Correctional Home in South Kolkata, which is the state’s biggest correctional home.

Announcing this at a press conference at the state secretariat of Nabanna, the new and ninth Chief Minister of West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, said that recently a major search operation was conducted at the Presidency Central Correctional Home by a state police team led by Director General (Correctional Services) Natarajan Ramesh Babu and the Deputy Commissioner (South Division) of Kolkata Police, V.S.R. Ananthnag.

“Following the search, several mobile phones were recovered and seized from inmates there. This menace had been going on in West Bengal for quite some time, either due to the callousness of the previous government or to the direct support of the previous rulers.

“This could not have happened without the cooperation of the officers in charge of the correctional homes. Following the recovery of the mobile phones, the Superintendent of Presidency Central Correctional Home, N. Kujur, and the Chief Controller, Dipto Ghorai, have been suspended,” CM Adhikari said.

Speaking on the occasion, he also said that similar operations will be carried out in other correctional homes throughout the state to end the menace of criminal elements continuing criminal activities from behind bars using mobile phones.

“I am also asking the officials attached to different correctional homes to do their duties diligently. Assisting a crime is an equal offence to committing the crime.

“So, all those either involved in the crime or assisting the crime will be punished. The Criminal Investigation Department has been asked to locate those persons in whose names the SIM cards used in the mobile phones recovered from the Presidency Central Correctional Home are registered,” said Adhikari.

–IANS

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