Warden caught supplying stuff to jail 'Wal-Mart'

Woman chief warden at Central Jail caught supplying Ganja, SIM cards, mobile phone, playing cards to inmates

Woman chief warden at Central Jail caught supplying Ganja, SIM cards, mobile phone, playing cards to inmates

B Jyothiyamma, the chief warden of Bangalore Central Jail since 2005, was caught as she handed over 850 grams of ganja, mobile SIM cards, a mobile phone and nine packets of playing cards to a convict in the men's barrack of the prison yesterday.



Jyothiyamma, who was in-charge of the women's cell, was caught because Dilip Kumar, the warden of the men's barrack, decided to see what she was up to when she rushed past him.

Kumar and other jail staffers caught Jyothiyamma as she handed over the bag with the ganja and SIM cards to Rizwan, a convicted pickpocket employed in the kitchen.

Dilip and the others checked the bag to discover 850 grams of ganja, nine sets of playing cards and three mobile SIM cards in the bag. Rizwan, a Shivajinagar-resident serving a one-year rigorous imprisonment sentence, revealed that he was directed by Jyothiyamma to hand over the contents of the bag to Sardar, an undertrial, Gangadhar, a murder convict serving a nine-year term, Nayaz Ahmed, a murder convict serving a five-year term, and Mahesh, a convict serving a eight-year jail sentence in a dacoity case.

Later, Kumar handed Jyothiyamma over to the Parappana Agrahara police along with the bag.

Inspector Vasudeva V K of the Parappana Agrahara police station said Jyothiyamma could not have been part of the 'supermart supply chain' without the help of other jail staffers.

"It is clearly a major racket involving prison staff. We knew that contraband was being circulated inside the prison. More than the confirmation of it, what shocked us was the involvement of prison staff with the convicts responsible for it," he said.

A search was also conducted at Jyothiyamma's home, but did not yield any contraband. Police sources said Jyothiyamma revealed that she had bought the ganja from a supplier and that she had merely acted as a courier.

"We have booked a case against Jyothiyamma under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

Jyothiyamma confessed to her crime and gave us details about her other contacts. We are now investigating the role her contacts played in this racket," Vasudeva said.

In delivery bag

850 grams of ganja 3 SIM cards 1 mobile phone 9 packets of playing cards