Home minister asks IG Prisons to curb jail corruption [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Home minister asks IG Prisons to curb jail corruption

Local June 13, 2019

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Wednesday asked the inspector general of prisons to curb corruption inside jails across the country after a recent internal inquiry by the ministry found widespread corruption and irregularities in the prison system.
In presence of senior home ministry officials including Security Services Division secretary Shahiduzzaman, the home minister asked prisons chief Brigadier General AKM Mustafa Kamal Pasha to curb the corruption in order to improve the system’s services.
The minister was inspecting stalls at the Kara Convention Centre (prison auditorium) in the capital’s Chawkbazar, which were organised to display innovations meant to bring more transparency in the government services by the Security Services Division and its subordinate departments – Department of Immigrations and Passport, Fire Service and Civil Defence, Prisons Directorate and Department of Narcotics Control.
For example, officials at a stall described that they had installed a large screen outside prisons so that inmates’ families could know who would be released on the day and as a result none could take bribe for giving the information.
But division secretary Shahiduzzaman asked why similar screens should not be set up for prisoners inside so that they could know who was being released on the day.
The minister was also appraised about other innovations, including a system that collected inmates’ medical data and a pilot project on telephone communication to family members from the jail.
But at the end of the inspection, the minister asked the IG Prisons to bring down the prison system corruption to ensure better services in the jails of the country.
‘Curb the corruption,’ the minister said.
On April 11, the Security Services Division completed an extensive investigation into the reported corruption inside prisons and found how prison officials were involved in it.
Prison officials in the headquarters told New Age that actions were underway over the corruption charges.
The designated home ministry committee after visiting the Chattogram central jail and the Jhenaidah and Brahmanbaria district jails reported that the law and order situation inside the jails might deteriorate anytime due to continued corruption and irregularities committed against the inmates.
The home ministry inquiry detailed how inmates of the Brahmanbaria district jail were subjected to extortion with the help of the jail superintendent and his subordinates.
On Tuesday last, Meherpur additional district magistrate Towfikur Rahman visited the district prison to investigate allegations of drug peddling inside the jail, irregularities during the release of inmates and high prices at the prison canteen.
A senior prison department official told New Age on Wednesday that they were sincerely working against corruption, especially after the arrest of their colleague Md Sohel Rana Biswas with a huge amount of cash, bank cheques and fixed deposit receipts worth about Tk 4 crore and drugs from a train at Bhairab in Kishoreganj on October 26, 2018.
Sohel, son of Jinnat Ali Biswas, a resident of RK Mission Road in Mymensingh town, had served in different jails for the past 18 years and was transferred to Chittagong Central Jail on December 27, 2017 from Narsingdi Jail, according to officials.
Talking to reporters, the home minister later said that action would be taken against deputy inspector general Mizanur Rahman for bribing Anti-Corruption Commission director Khandaker Enamul Basir on Monday for breaching service rules.
Asked about the arrest of former Sonagazi Police Station officer-in-charge Mouazzem Hossain, the minister said that all the escape routes have been cut off.
‘He can’t escape. He’ll be arrested soon,’ he said.
Earlier in the day, top officials of different security departments highlighted their innovations for improving the public services.
DNC director general Jamal Uddin Ahmed said that they were developing a mobile phone-based application to pin point the location of each and every official to check whether they were working or neglecting their duties.