The recent arrest of the jailed KCP faction leader Th Nando in connection with the grenade attack at the residence of AMWJU President A Mobi and the threat on the lives of Imphal based editors once again reaffirms the collapse of the jail administration in the state and the systematic failure dogging the state with regard to police functioning. Most of the inmates lodged in the jails of the state are in fact under-trial prisoners (UTPs) awaiting trial for want of proper investigation and capable prosecution of the state police. We have repeatedly discussed this issue in relation to police reforms in our editorials and we will continue the debate till the reforms. But today, we shall focus on operations by criminal elements from inside the jail. A criminal operating from inside the jail is not a new thing. It has a history worldwide more particularly in America. Mafia bosses directing outside criminal operations including killings or executions from inside the prison and controlling the crime syndicate operations through the family, jailed Colombian drug lords directing drug distribution worldwide, the activities of white supremacist groups like the Aryan Brotherhood controlled by leaders lodged inside the jails, and so on. India has its share of criminal dons directing criminal activities from inside the jail. When Mayawati was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, it became an issue and she had to direct prison authorities to conduct surprise checks. Last year, in Kolkota the city police recovered a mobile phone and SIM card from the cell of notorious gangster Gudda alias Sadiq Zafar at Alipore central Jail. On the basis of a specific tip-off, the city police detectives carried out the raids in Cell No 3 of Alipore Central Jail and recovered the mobile phone and the SIM, exposing the nexus between a section of jail employees and criminals. Gudda was reportedly running his extortion racket from inside the jail through this mobile phone. He not only kept in touch with his gang-members but was also calling up businessmen with extortion demands. Gudda got the mobile despite a slew of measures taken by the jail authorities, including the installation of jammers to prevent any communication between the inmates and outsiders. This is exactly what has been happening inside the Imphal Central Jail. The infamous KCP factional leader Thokchom Nando was handed on a platter by an outlawed organization to the state agencies in connection with the 2003 kidnapping and gruesome murder of Lungnila Elizabeth, a school girl and daughter of Minister Francis Ngajokpa. The state had handed over the Lungnila case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) then and the charge-sheet is still awaited while Th Nando continues his extortion racket from inside the Imphal Central Jail at Sajiwa. He reinvents or creates new factions within the KCP and operates the racket through his close associates or criminals he had the occasion to cultivate inside the prison perimeter, the latest being the reincarnation of the so-called KYKL-MDF. He was arrested from the jail premises in July 2010 in connection with the extortion racket. But his activities it seems is not confined to extortion only as can be seen from his arrest in 2009 from Sajiwa Jail in connection with the killing of contractor turned political aspirant Krishnadas of Kakching. In the recent case of blanket threat against the editors of local daily newspapers and the subsequent grenade attack at the residence of the President of All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) Th Nando has once again been arrested by the police. We may recall here a prison riot which happened a few years back supposedly instigated by Nando as the government was preparing to transfer him to a jail outside the state. This clearly indicates a corrupt jail administration held at ransom by powerful criminal elements that can call the shots and a ‘helpless’ government tamely watching the cat slurp up the milk. Is the government really helpless or is it by design? Such criminal elements are indeed useful in under-the-table dealing or secret deals, and as such they find patronage in powerful political circles. Questions aside, one thing is certain. The state has seriously failed in this case and it is up to them to make amends. Perhaps, this could be the ‘Agni-Parikshya’ of the state Home Minister Gaikhangam.
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