After the January 25 and January 26 raids at the Alipore Jail, which houses notorious criminals like Aftab Ansari, Happy Singh, to name a few, the Jail Department conducted another raid on January 27, but this time only jail officials were searched. One Deepankar Sur, a binder at the jail press, was caught with 20 packets of khaini and a good amount of hemp. He was immediately suspended and criminal proceedings were initiated against him.

On January 30, another employee of the Dum Dum Central Jail, Swapan Bhadra, was found with a letter of a prisoner and he too was suspended from his job.

“The chief minister has asked us to continue the drive in order to break the nexus between jail employees and prisoners. The first raid will always be conducted by a joint team of the police and jail authorities,”’ a senior Home Department official told The Indian Express.

On January 25, a joint team of the Detective Department and the Jail Department conducted a raid at the Alipore Jail, during which, six mobile sets, a DVD player, pornographic films, hemp and some other objectionable items were recovered from the inmates.

Following the raid, the Jail Department has now begun frisking all jail employees, including jail superintendents. “Our drive aims to curb corruption in jails. It’s a near impossible task but our drive will be on,” said B D Sharma, IG (Prisons).

Minister for Jails Biswanath Choudhury, who is from Front partner RSP, has also lauded the efforts of the new home secretary. “He has got my full support,” said Choudhury.